A contraflow lane is also set up on the Nimitz Highway between Alakawa and Pacific streets. The state operates the H-1 zipper lane, which runs from Managers Drive in Waikele to the east end of the H-1 airport viaduct. City spokesperson Jesse Broder Van Dyke declined to breakdown the costs. This weekday routine costs taxpayers nearly $850,000 a year, according to information provided by the Department of Transportation Services and the Department of Facility Maintenance.Įxactly how much of that money goes toward the workers, cones, vehicles or other related costs isn’t clear. to 6:30 p.m., and they’re done removing the cones by 7:30 p.m. so that the lanes can be open from 3:30 p.m. In the afternoon, contraflow is on Kapiolani and Waialae. On these county roads, a crew of nine people gets going at 4:30 a.m., and the lanes are expected to be fully coned by 5:30 a.m. The contraflow on Kalanianaole Highway from West Halemaumau Street to Ainakoa Avenue, which opened in 1973, is separated by cones, as are the contraflow lanes on Kapiolani, Ward and Waialae avenues. “We have to do our best with the lanes we have.” Going With the FlowĬontraflow coverage in Honolulu, which spans nearly nine miles in the morning and more than three miles in the afternoon, was first used on the islands in 1952 along Kapiolani Boulevard to tackle the bad traffic. “For many years, Honolulu has been pretty congested by too few lanes for the population we have, particularly in central Oahu between Aloha Stadium and Kahala,” said Prevedouros, who noted that the city doesn’t have alternatives or enough lanes. Still, Prevedouros is a believer in contraflow, and thinks it should be expanded. Not only does the current system drain public funds, but he believes the cones and blockades can be dangerous, especially if vehicles strike the cones and knock them into opposing cars and trucks. Prevedouros, a former mayoral candidate who has long advocated for better traffic solutions in Honolulu, said the use of cones and pylons is antiquated. They do it while being exposed to the oncoming morning and late-afternoon rush-hour traffic.Ī coning crew makes finishing touches on a contra flow lane on Waialae Ave in Kaimuki on January 7, 2014. Traffic personnel rise early in the morning to begin manually setting up and taking down over 900 cones and pylons around the city, in addition to posting signage and concrete barriers every weekday. Honolulu is one of the only places in the country that still uses cones for contraflow - and it has been one of the select few since at least 2008, according to Federal Highway Administration data from that year, which is the latest available. “(We’re) paying people to block lanes … (and) spending money for reasons that we don’t really have to.” The way that contraflow is done in Honolulu, he says, “is the unionized way of expending a lot of money.” Panos Prevedouros, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is in favor of contraflow, but he argues that the practice of manually coning lanes is wasteful and out of date. But it also costs taxpayers more than $3 million a year, and that is likely to be the case for the foreseeable future.Īdvocates say that more contraflow lanes are needed, but they need to be done right. It’s all part of an integrated system that aims to ease the second worst traffic congestion in the country. Similar tasks occur on H-1, except the pylons are replaced by giant concrete barriers that are pushed around the highway by a re-enforced bus-sized vehicle to create “zipper lanes” for commuters trying to get to town. This is contraflow, when lanes are reversed from the normal traffic flow direction, usually with a moveable barrier or cones, in order to alleviate heavy traffic at peak hours.Įach weekday, city workers position individual cones, signs and pylons to try smooth the flow of drivers toward their destinations. Perhaps you’ve seen them coming toward you as you drive your car.Īt first it might seem unsafe - even suicidal - for motorists to speed in opposite directions with only a thin line of grimy orange cones as a barrier between them. If you’ve traveled on the Kalanianaole Highway during morning rush hour, you’ve likely experienced the shock of seeing vehicles darting into oncoming traffic.
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