The Zipper Lane was set up yesterday morning, taking up two west-bound lanes of the freeway, but drivers headed into town were not allowed to use the lane.

That's because the state Department of Transportation wanted to use the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to repair 60 of the 1,500-pound links in the "zipper" and repaint the line on the pavement that guides the machine that sets up and takes down the lane.

In order to complete the maintenance work, the lane was kept in the extended position throughout the day and overnight last night.

It was reopened to east-bound traffic this morning

Even though yesterday was a holiday and traffic somewhat lighter than usual, the loss of two west-bound lanes during the afternoon rush hours resulted in a miles long backlog and immense driver frustration.

"We know it was kind of painful for everybody involved," Scott Ishikawa, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said this morning.

"You know, the zipper lane is almost 10 years old. And with all of the wear and tear, we just had to do the maintenance. We couldn't do it during a weekday and we can't do it on a weekend.