Nimitz lane closures intensify evacuation gridlock worries
Victoria Budiono, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Sun, August 31, 2025 at 9:06 AM PDT
The lane closures on Nimitz Highway through 2030 for Honolulu rail construction are raising concerns not only about daily traffic but also about how the city will move people in the next evacuation emergency in the aftermath of last month’s tsunami-scare gridlock.
On Aug. 18, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation and contractor Tutor Perini Corp. began 24 /7 closures on Nimitz between Awa and Bishop streets. One lane in each direction along the center median is shut for the City Center Guideway and Stations project, leaving three lanes open each way. The work will affect thousands of commuters, pedestrians and businesses for years.
Retired University of Hawaii engineering professor Panos Prevedouros warned that the lane closures could be especially dangerous during an evacuation, pointing to the July 29 tsunami scare when some motorists were stuck in traffic for hours.
The weekday commute corridor was already clogged before construction began. With one less lane and the loss of morning contraflow that once added capacity into town, Prevedouros warned the changes will push even more cars onto the already overburdened Middle Street merge.
In an emergency evacuation, he said, the problem would be far worse. Unlike Florida, which can convert highways to one-way outbound routes during hurricanes, Hawaii has no comparable plan, Prevedouros said.
The choke points, he noted, aren’t just on Nimitz itself but at intersections such as Nimitz and Kalihi Street, where traffic lights slow outbound flow.
Prevedouros, a longtime critic of Honolulu’s rail project, suggested measures such as contraflow on Dillingham Boulevard, synchronized green lights for outbound traffic and better coordination across parallel routes like Nimitz, Dillingham, King Street and the H-1 freeway.
But he cautioned that without public education on vertical evacuation to higher floors within a building, even those steps would not prevent gridlock.
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