Scheduled maintenance work on the H-1 Freeway Zipper Lane brought westbound traffic to a crawl yesterday and last night, backing up cars for miles on the freeway and side roads.

The Zipper Lane was deployed in its "in use" position, taking away two westbound lanes on the freeway between the airport to the H-1/H-2 merge in Waipahu.

Some motorists said it was the worst traffic jam since the Sept. 5 accident that damaged a pedestrian overpass in 'Aiea and prompted the closure of all H-1 westbound lanes.

Traffic was backed up past Red Hill at 7:30 p.m. It took some motorists 90 minutes to go from downtown to the Halawa interchange. The clog cleared by 10 p.m.

The state said it scheduled the maintenance project for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday "to ensure the smallest possible impact on traffic," according to a Department of Transportation news release last week.

"We apologize for the inconvenience but it was maintenance work that had to be done," DOT spokesman Scott Ishikawa said last night. "The Zipper Lane (barriers) were heavily damaged. This is like a bicycle chain; if it's not properly maintained it will not open and close properly."

The most congested area was from the airport to 'Aiea, Ishikawa said.

"Why do they want to maintain the Zipper Lanes in rush hour when everybody going home? This is stupid," said Joe Paoha, 59, a Wai'anae resident who decided to wait it out at Brandy's bar in Stadium Mall after getting stuck in the jam.

Paoha said he left his construction job in Waikiki about 4 p.m., hit Sand Island at 4:45 and went to his shop in Kalihi. He hit the road again at 6 p.m. but after 45 minutes decided to wait it out a second time.

"We all working people. We like to go home," said Paoha, who called his wife to say he'd be late. "The Department of Transportation, they're the ones who caused this problem."

The state closed two westbound lanes to motorists all day and night, beginning at 12:30 a.m. yesterday, to do maintenance work from the Ke'ehi interchange to the H-1/H-2 merge in Waipahu. The Zipper Lane will be open to eastbound traffic today from 5:30 to 8:30 a.m., its regular hours of operation.

The maintenance involved repainting the 15 mile-long Zipper Lane guideline, replacing 60 damaged barrier sections and performing maintenance work on overhead highway signs.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com and Ken Kobayashi at kkobayashi@honoluluadvertiser.com.