Thousands of O'ahu motorists found their Saturday stuck in neutral after an Aloha Petroleum tanker spilled 2,500 gallons of gasoline onto H-1 Freeway near 'Ewa and police shut down all lanes for much of the day as a safety precaution.

The resulting diversion of traffic onto Farrington Highway slowed vehicles to a snail's pace, choked Farrington as well as side streets and any alternative routes, and turned everyday jaunts in and out of West O'ahu into Herculean tests of patience and brake-foot fortitude.

"There were cars as far as the eye could see," said Karen Curry of Kapolei, who spent an hour and a half in traffic on her way home from town. "It was a parking lot out there."

Paul Dombrosky, 62, of Kapolei had to scuttle plans to head into town when he found both onramps closed and traffic along Farrington Highway moving in good approximation of continental drift.

"There was constant traffic everywhere around here," he said. "Every side street was crowded. I couldn't go anywhere."

Dombrosky had to settle for take-out from the nearby Chili's restaurant and a quiet afternoon at home.

"This shot my Saturday right in the rear end," he said.

According to Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Earle Kealoha, the gas spill occurred in the east-bound lanes about a half-mile before the 'Ewa off-ramp when the drive shaft from a tractor broke and punctured the front compartment of a tandem trailer containing the fuel.

Foam and water were used to contain the spill; gasoline remaining in the trailer was transferred to another tanker. Both the tractor and the trailer were removed from the site around noon.

All three east-bound lanes between Kunia and Kapolei were shut down around 8:45 a.m., stalling traffic in West O'ahu all the way to Nanakuli. West-bound lanes were also closed about an hour later.

Police diverted motorists onto Farrington Highway, which runs parallel to H-1, in Kapolei and directed them to go all the way to Waipahu before getting back on the freeway, a police dispatcher said.

The first west-bound lane was reopened shortly before 1 p.m., and by 2 p.m. all three west-bound lanes and one east-bound lane were cleared for traffic.

The cleanup stretched into the early evening as crews dug deep into the grass shoulder bordering the median to remove contaminated soil. The final two east-bound lanes were reopened at 7:27 p.m.

Aloha Petroleum chief executive officer Richard Parry issued a statement yesterday afternoon apologizing for the spill and the traffic problems.

"We are very sorry for the inconvenience caused by the accident," the statement said. "We understand that many people's lives were affected by the spill and we sincerely apologize.

"We are extremely thankful nobody was injured. We thank the Honolulu Police, city and federal firefighters, state Department of Transportation and our own personnel for their very professional and effective response to the accident, and will continue to work to clean up and restore the area."

That wasn't much consolation to the Bosley family of Makakilo, who found themselves trapped in traffic not once, but twice.

Joshua and Lindsay Bosley, both 23, and their two young daughters left their house around 11 a.m. to return a rental car at a nearby drop-off spot. But a half-hour drive from the top of Makakilo to Farrington Highway, a drive that usually takes just a few minutes, caused them to arrive after it closed at noon.

Their only other option was to return the car to a location near Honolulu International Airport. Unaware of the lane closures, they left home at 4 p.m. only to find themselves in the middle of the H-1 snarl.

"We didn't know until we made the turn and saw all the traffic ahead of us," Lindsay Bosley said.

It took the family more than an hour to travel the four miles between the on-ramp and the site of the spill. Along the way, they had to pull over so Bosley could feed 7-month-old daughter Lucy.

Mike and Tammy Correa saw the traffic from their home in Makakilo and canceled plans to visit with family in town.

"A lot of people didn't know what was going on until they got onto the on-ramp," Tammy Correa said. "We watched some of them climbing over the little mountain (on the side of the road), just four-wheeling it because they were desperate not to get stuck in it."