H-1 traffic snarled after snag in zipper lane
Advertiser Staff
A garbage truck struck several concrete barriers on the H-1 Freeway yesterday, touching off a daylong traffic jam that stretched into the evening.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
The accident near the Waipahu off-ramp left workers temporarily unable to close the freeway's zipper lane, which is used as a town-bound contraflow lane in the morning.
'Ewa-bound traffic on the H-1 Freeway was short one lane nearly all day yesterday after an accident prevented the closure of the ziplane.
That meant one 'ewa-bound lane was unavailable to traffic most of the day.
State officials said the accident occurred just before 9 a.m. when the private garbage truck smashed into the barrier, knocking almost 50 of the 1,500-pound concrete barriers out of alignment.
The truck's driver was not seriously injured, but a forklift had to be used for nearly five hours to get the huge barriers back into a position to be moved properly by the state's "Zipmobile," said Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa.
By early afternoon, traffic on all major roads heading 'ewa was moving at a snail's pace.
One driver reported taking at least 75 minutes to go from downtown Honolulu to Pearl Harbor, a trip that usually takes about 20 minutes.
State officials repaired the damaged concrete barriers and began opening up the extra lane by 3:30 p.m.
However, with rush-hour traffic just beginning, delays were expected to continue into the night, officials at the city's traffic management center said.
