Windward drivers have a new round of road challenges beginning tomorrow, with work projects starting on both Likelike and Kalaniana'ole highways.

The Honolulu-bound side of the Wilson Tunnels along Likelike Highway will be closed for one month beginning tomorrow so the state Department of Transportation can lay a new concrete surface. Most of a series of other renovations have been completed.

Through Oct. 6, the town-bound tunnel along Likelike will be closed 24 hours a day to allow for the repairs. The Kane'ohe-bound tunnel was closed for similar work recently.

Also tomorrow, road resurfacing will begin along Kalaniana'ole Highway from Castle Junction to Castle Medical Center in the Kailua-bound direction. One Kailua-bound lane in the work area will be closed between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. weekdays.

The $3.3 million repaving project is designed to repair the roadway and create two left-turn lanes from Kapa'a Quarry Road onto Kalaniana'ole Highway.

Still to be scheduled is a repaving project on the Honolulu-bound lanes in the same stretch from Castle Medical Center to Castle Junction.

As part of the monthlong Wilson tunnel closure, morning town-bound traffic will be contraflowed through the Kane'ohe-bound tunnel from 4 a.m. until noon.

During that time, Windward-bound drivers will have to use Pali Highway or the H-3 Freeway.

From 1 p.m. to 3 a.m. weekdays, Windward drivers will be able to head home using the open Kane'ohe-bound tunnel.

The Kane'ohe-bound tunnel will remain open 24 hours a day on weekends.

"The main objective is to get the Windward commuters into town in the morning and home in the afternoon," said state transportation director Rodney Haraga.

Crews working on the $13.8 million project, which began in spring 2004 and is scheduled for completion by December, are overhauling the half-century-old tunnels.

The project includes giving the tunnels a new concrete surface to provide better traction, repairing leaks and cracks, replacing ventilation equipment, installing ceramic tile along the tunnel walls and improving the drainage system.