Just after 5 a.m. on Friday, all eastbound lanes of the H-1 freeway slammed shut near the Liliha Street overpass, triggering hours of gridlock that spilled across Oahu and reignited a familiar worry: what happens to traffic when a real emergency strikes. Police had responded to a report of a man standing above the overpass, and the man was later found dead, with the case classified as an unattended death. The closure followed a motor vehicle collision and an active police investigation, snarling the morning commute for thousands of drivers and bus riders.
According to Hawaii News Now, officers shut down all H-1 eastbound lanes near the overpass, and motorists were detoured onto the Vineyard Boulevard off-ramp as traffic backed up behind them. The station reported that the Hawaii Department of Transportation opened the Zipper Lane to all vehicles at 6:56 a.m., with the closure extended to 9:30 a.m., a timeline echoed in a Hawaii DOT post on X from the agency's @DOTHawaii account. The Zipper Lane and the Nimitz Highway HOV lane were also opened to all vehicles.
Hawaii News Now reported that the two left lanes reopened to traffic at 7:42 a.m. while the remaining two stayed closed, with all previously shut lanes finally reopening just after 8 a.m. Even then, the station's report notes, eastbound traffic remained heavy as far as Fort Shafter long after the roadway technically reopened.
Commuters Describe Hours Lost to the Backup
Honolulu resident Ezekiel Stewart described the morning traffic as terrible, and said he worries that similar congestion could affect people trying to evacuate during another emergency. Brandi Stadel, who commutes from Mililani by bus, said her trip took far longer than usual; she typically reaches work by 5:50 a.m. but didn't arrive until about 6:35 p.m. Stadel said she would have taken the train downtown instead if it had been available, and that doing so would have gotten her to work on time. She called the congestion a safety hazard.
Roger Morton, director of Honolulu's Department of Transportation Services, said traffic backups spread across major roadways once H-1 traffic was reduced from four lanes to one. The jams affected King Street, Dillingham Boulevard and Nimitz Highway, as well as side streets across Honolulu, according to Morton. His department adjusted traffic signals in an attempt to ease the congestion as it spread.
Echoes of Last Year's Tsunami Gridlock
Friday's backup isn't the first time Oahu traffic has raised alarms about emergency readiness. The July 2025 tsunami warning triggered widespread traffic backups across the island, and Honolulu has since emphasized coordination between emergency responders and transportation officials through a Joint Traffic Management Center staffed during emergencies, which brings together first responders, agency supervisors, HPD, fire, EMS, ocean safety and traffic engineers.
A later review of that tsunami evacuation found that congestion in the primary evacuation zone had largely dissipated by the time the first wave was scheduled to arrive shortly after 7 p.m., according to Honolulu Civil Beat, and no fatalities occurred during the evacuation. That same account cited initial findings from a state DOT congestion study estimating that 92% of Oahu's vehicle traffic during the snarl was unnecessary.
During the 2025 response, traffic signals were adjusted to help manage evacuation traffic. Hawaii DOT Director Ed Sniffen said after the warning that officials would work to identify which intersections might need police, flaggers, or even military support to keep evacuation traffic moving, according to Hawaii Public Radio, which reported that state and local officials were preparing an after-action report with evacuation traffic as a key concern.
Signal Upgrades Underway on Farrington Highway
Separately from Friday's closure, the Department of Transportation Services began replacing older traffic signal controllers last month, starting along Farrington Highway between Kapolei and Makaha. The agency said it is working to improve signal coordination along that corridor and plans to eventually connect traffic signals along Farrington Highway from Kapolei to Makaha as part of the broader project.
