The state is planning to break ground by June on an $18 million project to ease congestion in the downtown Kapolei area, officials say.

The work will be the first phase of a project that will include improvements to three H-1 Freeway on-ramps and off-ramps in one of the most congested areas on O'ahu, said Scott Ishikawa, a Department of Transportation spokesman.

"We want to give people access to the freeway without making them drive through the center of Kapolei," Ishikawa said.

The project will involve building new freeway on- and off-ramps at Wakea Street near the Kapolei Theatres. That will allow drivers to bypass the busy Kapolei Shopping Center fronting Farrington Highway, where traffic can slow to a crawl at almost any time of the day.

Officials with the state Office of Environmental Quality Control said last week that short-term impacts of the construction could include increased noise, dust and traffic, but businesses objected to a proposal to build sound-reducing walls fronting their adjacent properties.

The new interchange also should relieve traffic congestion at the H-1 Makakilo or Palailai interchanges, the current freeway access.

Work is expected to begin by midyear and finish sometime in 2008. In addition to the new Wakea street ramps, it includes a new west-bound on-ramp from the Makakilo interchange and new west-bound off-ramp near Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park.

Ultimately, the state plans to spend $100 million on freeway traffic improvements in the area.

The area is also near the proposed starting point for a new fixed-guideway mass-transit system approved by the City Council last month. Construction is set to begin in late 2009.

Other state-sponsored transportation projects in the 'Ewa-Kapolei area scheduled for more work this year include the widening of Fort Weaver Road, ongoing construction of the North-South Road connecting Kapolei Parkway with the H-1 Freeway, and the widening of Fort Barrette Road, Ishikawa said.