Blessing ceremony held for the first Pali Highway improvement project
Posted on Jan 24, 2018 in Main, NewsThe Pali Highway – Street Lighting from Vineyard Boulevard to Kamehameha Highway and Resurfacing from Waokanaka Street to Kamehameha Highway is the first of three projects scheduled for the corridor.
HONOLULU – The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) Highways Division held a blessing ceremony today for the first of the Pali Highway improvement projects, the Pali Highway – Street Lighting from Vineyard Boulevard to Kamehameha Highway and Resurfacing from Waokanaka Street to Kamehameha Highway. This project, which began in December 2017, will repair or replace street lights from Vineyard Boulevard to Kamehameha Highway and repave Pali Highway from Waokanaka Street to Kamehameha Highway—including the parallel Waokanaka Street and the Pali Highway/Waokanaka Street intersection.
“The Pali Highway improvements represent our continued focus on system preservation at the Hawaii Department of Transportation,” said HDOT Deputy Director for Highways Ed Sniffen. “Coordinating this work with our Likelike Resurfacing project, which is wrapping up in Spring 2018, and the City’s Dowsett Highlands Sewer Relief project will help us minimize impacts to the public as we work to deliver these needed upgrades to the system.”
The Pali Highway resurfacing and street lighting project has a contract cost of $64 million and will also setup staging areas in Nuuanu that can be used to maintain travel lanes during the City and County of Honolulu’s Dowsett Highlands Sewer Relief project. The estimated completion date is Winter 2019. Completion of the street lighting conversion to energy efficient Light Emitting Diode fixtures will save approximately $99,000 per year in energy costs.
In an effort to minimize the impact on traffic, HDOT will work to keep three lanes open through Nuuanu during peak travel hours. Drivers should be aware that lanes will be narrowed and shifted in order to maintain the three open lanes.
Day and night time lane closures in both directions will be necessary in order to complete the project in a timely manner, including full overnight closures. The tentative lane closure schedule includes closing all inbound (town bound) lanes from Kamehameha Highway (Castle Junction) to Waokanaka from mid-February 2018 to March 2019 in the overnight hours from 8:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday night to Friday morning. The left lane in the outbound direction (Kailua bound) will also be closed during this timeframe.
Motorists can use the Likelike Highway, H-3 Freeway or Kalanianaole Highway as alternate routes during the full closures.
Lane closure information associated with this project will be available and updated weekly on the HDOT website at hidot.hawaii.gov in the roadwork section and released through our social media channels on Facebook and Twitter. Electronic message boards will be posted to warn motorists of the closures. Special Duty Police Officers will be on-site to assist with traffic control. Emergency vehicles, first responders, and TheBus will be notified of the roadwork.
As always, people are encouraged to check traffic conditions and drive times, before getting behind the wheel of their car, on any of the many resources available, including GoAkamai.org
A project to resurface Pali Highway from Vineyard Boulevard to Waokanaka Street is scheduled to begin in late 2018.
For more information on the Pali Highway Improvements including construction updates, schedule and maps please visit:
Group shot of the maile untying. (From Left to Right – Ed Brown, Regional Manager for Goodfellow Brothers; Ralph Rizzo, Federal Highway Hawaii Division Administrator; Representative Jarrett Keohokalole; Representative Cynthia Thielen; Guy Inouye from the City and County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services; Ed Sniffen, HDOT Deputy Director for Highways; Senator Lorraine Inouye, Senate Transportation Committee Chair; Jade Butay, HDOT Interim Director; Representative Takashi Ohno; Senator Jill Tokuda; Representative Ken Ito; Kahu Gordon Wong.)
Group shot of the maile blessing.
Deputy Director for Highways Ed Sniffen speaking.
Kahu Gordon Wong blesses the contractors.
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