The lane closures on Nimitz Highway through 2030 for Honolulu rail construction are raising concerns not only about daily traffic but also about how the city will move people in the next evacuation emergency in the aftermath of last month’s tsunami-scare gridlock.
On Aug. 18, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and contractor Tutor Perini Corp. began 24/7 closures on Nimitz between Awa and Bishop streets. One lane in each direction along the center median is shut for the City Center Guideway and Stations project, leaving three lanes open each way. The work will affect thousands of commuters, pedestrians and businesses for years.
Retired University of Hawaii engineering professor Panos Prevedouros warned that the lane closures could be especially dangerous during an evacuation, pointing to the July 29 tsunami scare when some motorists were stuck in traffic for hours.
The weekday commute corridor was already clogged before construction began. With one less lane and the loss of morning contraflow that once added capacity into town, Prevedouros warned the changes will push even more cars onto the already overburdened Middle Street merge.
In an emergency evacuation, he said, the problem would be far worse. Unlike Florida, which can convert highways to one-way outbound routes during hurricanes, Hawaii has no comparable plan, Prevedouros said.
The choke points, he noted, aren’t just on Nimitz itself but at intersections such as Nimitz and Kalihi Street, where traffic lights slow outbound flow.
Prevedouros, a longtime critic of Honolulu’s rail project, suggested measures such as contraflow on Dillingham Boulevard, synchronized green lights for outbound traffic and better coordination across parallel routes like Nimitz, Dillingham, King Street and the H-1 freeway.
But he cautioned that without public education on vertical evacuation to higher floors within a building, even those steps would not prevent gridlock.
University of Hawaii researcher Karl Kim, who authored a 2022 study modeling short-notice tsunami evacuations in Waikiki, said the July 29 evacuation highlighted familiar problems.
“It could’ve been much worse; what if it was a locally generated tsunami? What if it occurred when school was in session or in the middle of the night when most people are asleep?” Kim said.
Kim’s study found that without improvements, as many as 38,760 lives could be lost in a catastrophic tsunami. He urged investment in both infrastructure and public awareness.
“We need to invest more in communications and coordination but also science, technology and especially training and education,” he said.
Honolulu’s Department of Emergency Management acknowledged that the July 29 evacuation highlighted systemwide weaknesses.
Director Randal Collins said DEM was not informed of HART’s five- to six-year Nimitz closure until the public announcement.
“I’ve talked with other department heads, and we all agree that we need to put our heads together and come up with new strategies. But we haven’t yet had the opportunity to get all the stakeholders together and discuss … tactical-level issues,” he said.
“We recognized that there was significant gridlock — that is (a) concern of ours,” Collins added, emphasizing that residents should consider vertical evacuation rather than relying solely on vehicles. “When it comes to a tsunami … it’s not necessarily taking a specific route like road A to road B, it’s getting out of the inundation zone.”
Collins acknowledged public concern over lane closures but said construction will continue as planned.
“We can’t let these incidents interfere with our plans to do upgrades,” he said. “Construction is always constant. There’s always HPD and responders on the ground for when we do these types of evacuation; whether it’s (a tsunami) or wildfire, we’re going to make the decisions based on the current situation. We’re not going to stop the construction or the progress of construction for those types of concerns.”
But residents say the new Nimitz bottleneck compounds existing choke points.
Von Kaneshiro, a Nuuanu business owner, said simultaneous closures on Dillingham and now Nimitz have stacked constraints across Honolulu’s south shore.
“By constraining both, you’re forcing all the traffic … mauka; that congestion would be tragic.”
HART officials maintain that emergency planning is built into the traffic control plan.
“Nimitz Highway will be open during construction, and three lanes of travel in each direction are being maintained,” said Joey Manahan, HART’s director of government relations and public involvement.
He added that lane closures are “necessary … to create a safe workspace for the construction crews and the traveling public.”
The plan was coordinated and approved by the state Department of Transportation and the city’s Department of Transportation Services, he said.
Both DOT and the city’s DTS referred questions about the Nimitz lane closure impact on evacuation routes to HART.
King and Beretania streets are available as alternate east–west routes. Traffic signals and signage will be adjusted as needed, according to Manahan.
With closures in place through 2030 and fresh memories of widespread gridlock on Oahu, officials and residents say balancing construction safety with keeping evacuation routes open will remain a critical challenge.
Source: The Garden Island
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