It's been three years since Gov. Linda Lingle changed the name of the tunnel that cuts through the Ko'olaus on the H-3 Freeway back to its original title.

But it wasn't until last Wednesday that the change became overwhelmingly apparent.

Spelled out in 24-inch-high aluminum letters as you enter from either side of the tunnels is: "Tetsuo Harano Tunnel."

"The white makes it really bright," said Harano, 86. "It kind of surprised me."

Harano was the H-3 Freeway administrator when the tunnel was constructed in the 1990s, and he was honored with its name.

"It was only fair to restore the name to a person who had worked in government for 52 years," said Rodney Haraga, the state's Transportation Department director. "It's a tribute to him because he was one of the key people in getting the funding (to build the highway)."

The tunnel's name became a controversy in 2001 when then-Gov. Ben Cayetano renamed the tunnel after former Gov. John A. Burns, saying he was crucial to the construction of the highway.

The name change angered many, including Yoshie Tanabe and Kongo Kimura, who collected 10,000 signatures to revert the tunnel back to its original title and complained that removing Harano's name was a dishonor to him.

"I was so angry at Gov. Cayetano," said Kimura, 87. "To me he did the most foolish and stupid thing. Gov. John Burns would never approve of such a thing to erase somebody else's name and put his name on it."

When Lingle was elected in 2003, she returned the tunnel to its original name, and Tanabe, 75, and Kimura said they thought they had won the battle.

Soon after, they realized the war to honor Harano was far from over.

The state Department of Transportation took down the brass letters for John A. Burns Tunnel, but put up "Tetsuo Harano Tunnel" only on the control tower between the two tunnels where it was barely visible.

Upset, Tanabe pushed the state to get the job done. She wrote letters and e-mails and phoned officials.

The saga finally came to a close last week when the bold letters on both entries into the tunnel were put in place.

Tanabe, Kimura and Harano saw the newly restored letters at a quiet ceremony for the first time Friday. It took the DOT three years to install the sign because of funding, Haraga said. The new letters cost $12,000 installed, while the former letters had cost $40,000. The money came from the Highway Trust Fund.

Friday's ceremony was quiet and low key, as Harano and Lingle had requested.

"It (the new lettering) was really a surprise to me because I wasn't aware of it at all in the beginning," Harano said. "Then I hear from my friends what was happening. It kind of built up and surprised me how it was turning out."

Reach Robert Shikina at rshikina@honoluluadvertiser.com.