After three years of construction, the city completed work yesterday on Phase 2 of the Salt Lake Boulevard widening project.

Drivers in the densely populated area now have four lanes rather than two on the stretch of road from Bougainville Drive and Maluna Street.

Federal funds covered 80 percent of the $21 million project, which added landscaped medians, left-turn lanes and bike lanes as well as buried utility lines and improvements to the street lighting system.

The half-mile stretch of work is a continuation of the Salt Lake Boulevard widening project from Luapele Drive to Bougainville Drive in 1999.

Design and planning of a third and final phase is expected to start for the area from Maluna to Ala Liliko'i streets in early 2007. The second phase was expected to have been completed a year ago, but the contractor, Goodfellow Bros., ran into unexpected problems, according to the city, including the discovery of buried containers that had to be treated as hazardous waste.

"It looks great. There are plants in the median and new lights," said Grant Tanimoto, chairman of the Aliamanu/Salt Lake/Foster Village Neighborhood Board. "People have been very patient. Everyone understands that these things take time and there are challenges. It's just this one has taken an extraordinary period of time."

Mayor Mufi Hannemann said the project will help move traffic through the busy area.

"Traffic is a major impediment to our quality of life, and completion of this project helps ease traffic congestion," he said. "This is the kind of short-term, immediate traffic relief that we are seeking in addition to longer-term solutions."

Wayne Hashiro, director of the city Department of Design and Construction, said there still is some work to be done at some curbs to fulfill requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act and some final work on traffic and street lights, which should be done in a month or two.

Work has begun on an environmental assessment for the next phase, which would provide four lanes for the two-lane stretch of the boulevard from Maluna Street to Ala Liliko'i at the entrance to Salt Lake.

Tanimoto said the final phase is important because the road now bottlenecks near the Salt Lake Shopping Center where four lanes are reduced to one.

Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com.