Farrington Highway Intersection Improvements

Update on Farrington Intersection Improvements Project (1/8/18)

HDOT thanks the community for their patience with the Farrington Intersection Improvements (Turning Lane) project and provides the update below on the project.

The Farrington Intersection Improvements project created a fifth lane to be used for left turn storage at Farrington Highway’s intersections with Haleakala Avenue and Nanakuli Avenue. This lane will be used Monday through Friday from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. (or earlier if traffic flow is good) as an additional westbound lane on Farrington Highway from Piliokahi Avenue to Nanaikeola Street as long as there is funding available.

The fifth lane will be opened to traffic and utilized for the afternoon contraflow operations beginning Tuesday, January 16, 2018. Opening the lane in mid-January allows for timing on the traffic signals at Haleakala Avenue and Nanakuli Avenue to be completed by the City and County of Honolulu Department of Transportation Services. Further adjustments to the timing of the left turn signals at these intersections will occur once the lane is fully opened.

What was the delay?

 The construction plans were made on the basis of “as-built” plans from past improvement and repair projects. Many of the “as-built” plans were later found to be either inaccurate, incomplete, or missing. As a result, the base plan did not reflect some of the physical conditions on site.  Modifications had to be made to the design plans during construction to avoid underground utilities. As a result, the project was stopped twice to allow for plans to be redrawn, reviewed, and approved and the permitting process to be reopened. Additional design work was needed to accommodate requested plan revisions to the project’s traffic signal plans, including subsurface wiring installation to provide a direct connection to the City’s traffic management center, that fell outside of the project’s original scope-of-work.

These design delays had impacts with the construction scheduling as the contractors would work on other projects while the designs were being finalized. Additional delays resulted as the contractor adjusted work flows and procedures to account for contraflow operations.

A large part of the construction for the Farrington Intersection Improvements (Turning Lane) project was done at night in to mitigate the impacts from other large projects nearby (i.e., Nanakuli Village Center, Nanakuli Library, Drainage improvements at Princess Kahanu Ave.). An accelerated project schedule was enacted in December 2017 to attempt to make up time.

 What work needs to get done between now and Jan. 16?

 Work remaining includes removal of the Makai traffic pole, installation of the Mauka mast, cabling and hardware installation, and striping. Work with the City and County of Honolulu Department of Transportation Services to fine tune the timing of the traffic signals will occur after the full opening of the lane.

 Will the Nanakuli Contraflow continue?

HDOT is currently preparing a service contract for a private contractor to maintain and operate the Nanakuli contraflow when the project is completed with a slight shortening of the contraflow in order to maintain two east bound lanes throughout. We understand the improvements the contraflow has made and will extend its operation if we have sufficient funds to do so. Without additional funding, it is very difficult to predict how long we can operate the contraflow.