Work is scheduled to begin Sept. 6, the day after Labor Day, on the Kailua-bound lanes and could take up to 7 1/2 months to complete both directions, said Scott Ishikawa of the state Department of Transportation.

The repaving project will include, at the community's request, creating two left-turn lanes from Kapa'a Quarry Road onto Kalaniana'ole, Ishikawa said.

The resurfacing will take place at the same time the state closes the town-bound lane on the Likelike Highway to repave inside the Wilson Tunnels, but the two projects should have little effect on the each other, he said.

The state is wrapping up a yearlong $13.8 million project to overhaul the Wilson Tunnels. DOT spent $7.8 million to reduce the hillside opposite Castle Junction, removing 18,000 truckloads of dirt in 19 months.

The decision to repair the Kailua-bound lane first was based on its being in the worst condition and because of the Wilson Tunnels repaving that is expected to last from Sept. 6 to Oct. 6, Ishikawa said.

"We're going to time it so we don't have two bottlenecks in the same direction," he said, adding that people should expect slowdowns because only one lane into Kailua will be open during the construction.

No night work is planned in Kailua because of the presence of nesting endangered birds that would be disturbed by artificial lights, he said. There will be no contraflow because of lack of road space, Ishikawa said.

The state had said it would repave the highway shortly after the landslide problem was fixed in December but permits, especially the environmental ones, took longer than expected. Also the state didn't want to close a Kailua-bound lane at the same time the Kane'ohe-bound lanes on Likelike were closed last month, he said, adding that the department knew that more people were using the Pali Highway then.

The state also has a moratorium on road projects for two weeks to allow people time to adjust to an increase in traffic when schools open, he said.