Honolulu: Roads Back to Normal By Monday Afternoon
The leaders of Asian and Pacific economies will finish their official meetings tonight.
The physical evidence of APEC‘s presence in Honolulu won’t be erased instantaneously, but the hope is that most traffic operations will return to normal by the Monday morning or Monday afternoon rush hours.
Federal, state and city officials said Sunday they’re working hard to clean up security checkpoints and barriers. They said they expect things will be back to normal by Monday afternoon’s rush hour, though they warned of continued traffic delays until President Obama leaves the island Tuesday morning.
“We’re getting used to this, but it’s almost over,” Honolulu Managing Director Doug Chin told Civil Beat’s television partner, KITV, in .
There are still some rolling delays coming. Shortly before 5 p.m., world leaders started leaving Ko Olina, and their motorcades will disrupt traffic. Monday morning, there will be delays as some leave from Waikiki and head to the airport. And Tuesday morning, Obama will depart.
The president is holding a fundraising brunch at 9 a.m. Monday in Ko Olina. There will be some extra security in that area, said Secret Service spokesman Max Milien. But the National Special Security Event ends tonight, and the extra security restrictions associated with it will be lifted.
“Once the NSSE leaders meeting concludes at the J.W. Marriott, those restrictions will cease. That’s 11 p.m.,” Milien told Civil Beat.
Milien said barricades will be removed by Monday morning. He pointed to the security plan put out by the Secret Service weeks ago and said everything remains on schedule.
“No changes. Everything that is in that plan is going just like it is.”
Removing the barricades is a key step, because the city is waiting for the federal checkpoint at the Ala Moana end of Waikiki to be removed before resuming normal traffic flow and bus operations.
“The Ala Moana security checkpoint may not be gone today,” city spokeswoman Louise Kim McCoy told Civil Beat. “It may be removed before tomorrow morning.”
She said the city is monitoring the removal of barricades and coming up with plans.
“I think what we’re trying to do right now is to see what can be done, but we’re also trying to determine whether or not things can be removed,” she said. “Once that sort of solidifies, I think we’ll be able to provide some more information.”
Wayne Yoshioka, director of the city’s Department of Transportation Services, said the city is not responsible for any barriers, road closures or lane reductions. For now, the city is in watch-and-wait mode to see when Ala Moana Boulevard is opened to general traffic heading into Waikiki.
“As soon as we’re clear, and there’s nothing in our way, we’ll start to run regular (bus) service,” Yoshioka said.
Meanwhile, the Hawaii Department of Transportation is responsible for picking up some 450 barriers placed on state roads and highways across the island.
“We anticipate that all of our DOT barriers will be off the roads at some point tomorrow,” spokesman Dan Meisenzahl said Sunday.
For more about the local impacts of APEC, check out Civil Beat’s APEC Survival Guide.
