Construction to replace the water main between Nanakuli and Kapolei has left Wai'anae Coast motorists fuming and east-bound traffic backed up every morning from Honokai Hale to the power plant at Kahe Point.

What's more, the $24 million project, which began in late March, is expected to run through June 2011.

"This is ridiculous," Brandon Hanohano of Wai'anae Valley yelled from his car window yesterday as he crept along at 2 mph between Tracks Beach Park and Ko Olina Resort on his way to work at Best Buy in 'Aiea. "This goes on every morning."

"This project is killing us," added Patty Teruya, chairwoman of the Nanakuli-Ma'ili Neighborhood Board, after it took her 48 minutes to get through the snarl. "They expect this community to put up with three years of this construction?"

After many complaints, the Board of Water Supply said yesterday it will alter traffic flow along four-lane Farrington Highway beginning today.

From now on, project areas will be contraflowed on both sides of the highway so two townbound lanes will be open each morning, and two Wai'anae-bound lanes will be open each afternoon, according to the BWS.

"We've heard from concerned citizens in the area," said Su Shin, BWS spokeswoman, who reiterated that the traffic flow schedule will remain flexible and that BWS representatives will continue to meet monthly with community groups to give updates and listen to resident concerns and suggestions.

"And that's what we need," she said. "We don't drive it every day. They do."

Shin said BWS inspectors, the state Department of Transportation, and Delta Construction Corp., which is working on this phase of the three-part project, believe the new plan should alleviate most of the congestion.

Previously, both east-bound lanes had been merging with off-ramp traffic from Ko Olina Resort, all of which was funneled into a single east-bound lane.

According to DOT statistics, that's a daily average of 25,000 vehicles squeezing through one point. The result has been gridlock stretching from Honokai Hale to Hawaiian Electric's Kahe power plant, and sometimes beyond, on the only artery serving the Wai'anae Coast.

"The important thing to remember is that there will be two lanes going and two lanes coming, which is what it would be normally if the construction project wasn't happening," Shin said.

3-PHASE PROJECT

The entire three-phase project covers 4.4 miles between the point where the H-1 Freeway starts in Kapolei, and Haleakala Avenue in Nanakuli. Phase 1, which began in March and is scheduled to last 15 months, covers a one-mile stretch from the entrance of Ko Olina Resort at Ali'inui Drive, to the H-1 start-up.

The second phase, about a mile and a quarter from Haleakala Avenue in Nanakuli and Piliokahi Avenue (Black Rock), is scheduled to begin next month and is expected to last 14 months. Like the first phase, the work will be done from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday, and traffic will be contraflowed to decrease congestion.

That also will mean two different areas of construction under way simultaneously.

The project's third phase, a nearly two-mile stretch between Ali'inui Drive and Piliokahi Avenue, is expected to begin in August 2009 and last approximately 22 months.

Teruya and others have wondered why the work can't be done overnight instead of during the daytime. But Shin said monthslong overnight work in residential areas is unacceptable because of construction noise.

Where construction occurs in areas with no housing, she said, it will be done after hours. For example, construction on the third phase — an area in which there is no residential housing — will be done from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m., Sunday through Thursday.

ON A SET SCHEDULE

While the manner in which the traffic flow is handled will remain flexible, Shin said the work itself must be done on schedule. The 24-inch mains carry 60 percent of all the drinking water used on the Wai'anae Coast. According to an industrywide formula used to calculate when to replace water mains, the time has come for the Wai'anae Coast to have a new water system, Shin said.

In recent months, for example, two costly and time-consuming main breaks near Ko Olina tied up traffic for weeks while repairs were made.

Shin said that although main replacement will cause inconvenience to residents on the Wai'anae Coast, once completed the new system should remain trouble-free for decades.

"This is planned work," Shin said. "And with planned work we can start construction after rush hour, or we can talk about what measures we can take to mitigate traffic back-ups. But, when there's a main break, all that stuff goes right out the window.

"If we don't fix it right away, then everybody on the Wai'anae Coast ends up with little to no water."