Department of Transportation

HONOLULU – The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) advises motorists of a temporary change to traffic patterns at the Lunalilo Street Onramp to the westbound H1 Freeway. Beginning on Monday, September 22, vehicles will be allowed to enter the freeway from the Lunalilo Street Onramp, Monday through Friday, during the morning rush hour for a two-week trial period.

The current morning coning redirects traffic to the Punchbowl Street Onramp. It is placed each weekday morning between at 5:45 a.m. to 6 a.m. with removal from 8:15 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. The coning started with trials in 1997 and 2004 as efforts to reduce westbound morning traffic congestion and increase traffic flow through the freeway corridor. The trials were deemed successful and cones have remained in place.

“With the completion of restriping of the H1 Freeway to four lanes in each direction between Punahou Street and the vicinity of Middle Street, the HDOT is conducting a trial to determine how removal will affect traffic flow during the morning peak congestion period,” said HDOT Interim Director Ford Fuchigami. “The integrity of traffic flow through the H1 Freeway corridor is HDOT’s priority, however this trial period will allow engineers to study the impacts of removing the cones to see if permanent removal is possible.”

Message boards alerting drivers to the temporary change are placed at the intersection of Lunalilo Street and Pensacola and on the H1 Freeway prior to the Lunalilo Street Onramp. The HDOT will be closely monitoring the traffic during the two-week trial.