Posted on: Sunday, June 19, 2005

EDITORIAL
State aligned project with traffic concerns

Let's face it: There's never a good time to shut down lanes on an important commuter artery. News about the impending shutdown of Likelike Highway lanes for repairs to the Wilson Tunnel shocked Windwardites, who started to feel a little better when they read the fine print.

The busy highway will bear at least some of its weekday rush-hour load, thanks to a contraflow plan transportation officials wisely adopted, at the urging of the community. The entire highway will shut down in both directions on weeknights after 8, but alternative routes should be able to handle the traffic at those times.

The work — digging up the 50-year-old concrete roadbed in the tunnels and laying down the new one — is a critical part of the long-overdue highway upgrade that already has produced a wider, smoother alignment, better lighting and the start of a facelift to the tunnels' grimy interior. Nobody can complain about the improvements themselves.

The timing is far from perfect. Work on the Honolulu-bound lanes won't start until Sept. 5 — the project is on hiatus in August to avoid the back-to-school jam.

The original plans were for a monthlong, round-the-clock shutdown of the entire highway during the summer. But the redesign for contraflow lanes pushed off the start date. That's unfortunate. Had the state planned the contraflow from the start, the entire job might have been completed within the summer months.

But those who remember when highway work generally took place during daylight hours are at least gratified that more recent projects have posed less of a public inconvenience. Now the onus is on Windward commuters to do their part, choosing alternative routes when possible to help move traffic during what will be challenging weeks ahead.