Zipper Lane to open Thursday morning after Zip Mobile issues jam commute for thousands
HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - State transportation officials announced the zipper lane would resume normal operations for the Thursday morning commute.
This comes after two days of nightmarish traffic for thousands of Oahu commuters due to a mechanical issues with the Zip Mobiles.
Despite warnings that the extra lane wasn’t going to open Wednesday morning for eastbound drivers, commuters piled onto the only major highway into town.
The trouble on the roads started Tuesday morning, when the 26-year-old primary Zip Mobile had computer issues which prevented it from being able to close the lane.
Despite having a need for brake work, the first back-up, which is six years old, was called in to close the lane, which didn’t happen until 2:30 p.m. That locked up westbound traffic for most of the day.
By the evening, officials decided not to risk opening the lane Wednesday morning, because the third machine — which is nearly brand new — was down for repairs. So they cancelled opening the lane Wednesday.
Commutes were well over an hour from the westside communities like Kapolei and Ewa Beach.
The state said its California contractor that supplies the Zip Mobiles, Lindsay Transportation Services, sent technicians to Oahu Wednesday as they were previously set to service the machine already in the shop. They’re now working to bring all three vehicle up to speed.
The state has zipper-trained mechanics, but still relies on the mainland company to provide technicians for some repairs. The state owns the three machines and spends more than $3 million a year for operations and maintenance.
Meanwhile, few people took advantage of Honolulu’s Skyline rail system to bypass the jam. However, City Transportation Director Roger Morton said some of his staff noticed slightly fuller than usual trains in the earlier hours.
“You know, people get caught off guard when this happens,” he said. “And it’s kind of hard I think for them to make a last minute, game day call that they’re going to go and and do this different one.”
Morton said people need to have a plan before trying to avoid emergency traffic jams using rail, because the current route hasn’t reached major employment centers, and transferring to buses to reach work or school may not save them that much time.
“Now, that’s going to change as we get our system to Pearl Harbor, to airport and to Middle St. and obviously the system was designed to go all the way into downtown. It is a little disappointing,” he said, that the system wasn’t to that point yet.
There have only been a handful of zipper machine or lane failures since it opened in 1998.
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