A $20 million state plan to widen Fort Barrette Road from two lanes to four in 2009 is intended to help relieve traffic jams in an area notorious for morning and evening snarls.

The Department of Transportation project, which will use federal money, is one of several plans aimed at helping motorists get into and out of the area.

"The funds for the Fort Barrette work would be available in 2009, so the construction would tentatively begin then," said Li Nah Okita, manager of the project.

Okita said the project calls for more than simply expanding the road to two lanes in each direction between Farrington Highway and the O'ahu Railway and Land right-of-way.

The project, which is still in the design stage, also calls for sidewalks and bike lanes, better streetlights and other safety features, and improving the railroad crossing near the southern end of Fort Barrette Road.

Maeda Timson, chairwoman of the Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board, praised the planned road expansion, saying residents welcome anything that would ease slowdowns.

Timson said traffic congestion has been the No. 1 complaint at Neighborhood Board meetings for years.

"The widening of Fort Barrette Road is something that we really need because of the very fact that the road is so narrow," she said. "First of all, it's important because our schools are all lined up off that road. You have the high school and the middle school kind of next to each other. And it's difficult for people traveling on Fort Barrette to get in there because there are not enough lanes."

In addition, Timson said people from 'Ewa Beach — who have their own traffic headaches — frequently take the shortcut from the back of 'Ewa Beach to Kalaeloa, and then drive up Fort Barrette Road to get to H-1, adding to the congestion.

"They do it going and coming," she said.

As a consequence, residents and motorists in Kapolei are pleased about the second phase of a $63 million state plan to finish widening Fort Weaver Road. That work, slated to be completed in early 2009, should take some pressure off 'Ewa Beach motorists, they say.

"The whole intent of the Fort Weaver Road project is to complete widening the road all the way down to Geiger Road," said Scott Ishikawa, state Department of Transportation spokesman. "We've already widened the road from four to six lanes from Farrington Road to A'awa Street. That's three lanes in each direction. This will help with both the morning and afternoon drives.

"The situation right now is that Fort Weaver Road is so congested that 'Ewa residents are going through Kalaeloa as a back-door route to get to the freeway through Kapolei. So, we hope that by widening Fort Weaver Road as well as Fort Barrette Road, along with the construction of the North-South Road, this will help alleviate the traffic situation in 'Ewa."

Ishikawa said the $80 million North-South Road — which should be completed in late 2008 — will be a four-lane road that connects Kapolei Parkway with the H-1 Freeway, creating a third route into and out of the 'Ewa Plain and access to the freeway. The major aspect of that construction will be a full H-1 interchange.

"Right now the drivers are either using Fort Weaver Road or Kapolei to access the H-1 Freeway," he said.

Widening Fort Barrette and Fort Weaver roads, and completing the North-South Road, will go a long way in solving the traffic nightmares that plague Kapolei, 'Ewa Beach and the entire 'Ewa Plain, said Timson.

The problem, she said, is that the planners of what was called O'ahu's "Second City" in West O'ahu waited too long to widen the roads after more and more homes and residents came to the area during the past decade.

"Everything started to explode about five years ago," Timson said. "I don't think anyone actually realized that there would be two communities using this one road (Fort Barrette Road) that suddenly had two schools built right in the heart of it. So now they're doing a lot of catch up to alleviate some of our traffic woes."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.