H-3: The road to
reduced traffic

New highway has taken
10 percent of the traffic off the
Pali and 20 percent off the
Likelike since it opened
one year ago today.

By pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

Rick Ziegler notes the irony every time he drives across the Koolau Mountains to Honolulu Community College.

Ziegler, former president in the mid-1980s of the Stop H-3 Association, acknowledges the roadway he once opposed now siphons rush-hour traffic off the Likelike Highway, making it easier for him to commute to and from work.

He still questions whether the 16.1-mile, $1.3 billion H-3 freeway was worth its price. But Ziegler says the H-3 has made a big difference for those on the Likelike, where the absence of big quarry trucks and other heavy vehicles during rush hour, which now take the H-3, has made the commute easier.

"I come over Likelike, and there's just no question that Likelike is just much much better," Ziegler said yesterday. "Let's put it this way: If we spend $1.2 billion, it better darn well do some good. And it has for (drivers on Likelike)."

The H-3 turns 1 year old today, and according to statistics from the state Department of Transportation, motorists have welcomed it since it opened Dec. 12, 1997.

Today, nearly a third of all motorists who make a trans-Koolau trip use the scenic roadway, which links Halawa and Haiku valleys via a mile-long tunnel through the mountain.

Yearlong figures show H-3 has taken off 10 percent of the traffic on the Pali and 20 percent off the Likelike since it opened. On Nov. 3, 1997, before its opening, 109,078 trips were made over the Koolaus, with Likelike and Pali splitting the use.

But of the 123,307 Koolau trips made a year later on Nov. 6, 1998, records show Pali usage dropped to 40 percent, and Likelike to 30 percent.

The H-3 grabbed a 30 percent share of the trips taken.

In doing so, the highway exceeded even the projections of the Transportation Department, which expected it would be 10 years before the H-3 reached that level of use.

"We didn't expect to see this kind of ridership, to tell you the truth," said state highways chief Peri Manthos. "And it's good. Because nobody wants a highway that is underutilized."

Manthos said when original projections were done, developments such as Waikele and Kapolei, as well as commercial and resident projects in Pearl City, where still on the drawing board. Those developments are now attracting commuters from the Windward side, something state officials had not planned, he said.

"We see more cross-town commutes than we saw before, and the early predictions didn't factor in that development," Manthos said.

Additionally, records show the H-3 is gaining popularity during the morning and afternoon rush-hour commutes. Last month, figures show H-3 drew about 23 percent of the morning traffic, with Likelike use at 37 percent and Pali at 40 percent.

Both the Likelike and H-3 drew 29 percent each of the afternoon rush-hour traffic, and the Pali Highway, 42 percent.

State Sen. Bob Nakata, who had opposed the H-3, said the 30-year controversy over the highway has made community groups stronger in opposition to the urbanization of Windward Oahu, a big worry when the H-3 was being built.

But with the state concentrating development in Kapolei, Nakata feels Windward residents now have the best of both worlds.

"So in a sense, I'd say we won the war, although we lost the battle over H-3," said Nakata, who last month won his Kahuku-Kaneohe Senate seat.

"And the reason I say Windward got the best of both worlds is now that we have the highway, we have the best traffic situation on the island, as far as commuting to Honolulu for work," Nakata said.

Manthos said the popularity of H-3 has made it easier for the department to maintain the older Likelike and Pali highways.

For example, work crews are planning to shut down two lanes of the Likelike for resurfacing in the near future but are not worried of disrupting traffic because motorists now have two other highways to cross the Koolaus.

"From a maintenance perspective, we can shut down the road. . . . We couldn't do that without the H-3 -- not easily, anyway," Manthos said.

But not everyone has accolades for the H-3. Hawaiian cultural practitioners say the opening of the highway has been a headache in access to and preservation of ancient religious sites in Halawa Valley.

Laulani Teale, who gave birth to her son in the Hale O Papa women's heiau in Halawa Valley, said the Transportation Department has locked the access road under the freeway leading to the heiau.

Teale and others now have to scale an 8-foot-high fence to get to the site.

The group -- which visits the heiau regularly -- tries to keep the site clear of weeds, but it is a tough chore, compounded by trash being thrown from motorists on the viaducts above.

Also, pollution from the vehicles are killing birds and native vegetation in the valley, Teale said.

"It's terrible," she said. "The weeds are coming up. People throw litter off the side of the freeway."

"You would hope people who live in a beautiful place like Hawaii would have enough concern not to damage one of the few places we have left that has that kind of beauty," Teale said.

Transportation spokeswoman Marilyn Kali said access to the sites is allowed on weekdays, when H-3 engineers are available to unlock the gate on the access road. Kali said there haven't been that many requests by cultural practitioners to visit the sites.

"We have very few requests," she said. "Most of the requests we have are for pig hunting, and we're not allowing pig hunting there."

Meanwhile, the Transportation Department and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs are close to approving a cooperative agreement that would give OHA the authority to design, construct and maintain an $11 million cultural and interpretive center along the H-3 corridor in Halawa and Haiku valleys.

The OHA board on Oct. 14 approved the agreement, and it was signed a day later by former OHA Chairwoman A. Frenchy DeSoto and an OHA staff attorney. The agreement was sent to the Department of Transportation, where Kali said it is being reviewed by the attorney general's office.

If approved by both parties, OHA would be allowed to spend $500,000 for administrative costs, $500,000 for preliminary design of an interpretive plan and $500,000 for its final design. The remaining $9.5 million would be for implementation of the Hawaiian cultural center.

A 1987 memorandum of agreement was made among the Federal Highways Administration, the state Historic Preservation Office and the Advisory Council of Historic Preservation, with OHA and DOT agreeing to the provisions.

The memorandum requires any adverse effect of H-3 on the Luluku archaeological site and any historic property within the highway corridor eligible for the National Register of Historic Places to be mitigated through an interpretive or cultural center.

Teale believes those who regularly take care of the sites should be the ones consulted on what the center should look like.

"I'm very concerned that it be pono (right) to the aina. It's got to be right for the land and for the people who have put themselves in the line to take care of that land over and over again," Teale said. "Those are the people who should be forwarding any kind of plans or be consulted, at least -- and we haven't been called."