Hawai`i Roads - I-H1




HI 63 SB at I-H1 Exit 20A. The inner sign just isn't reflective, but all three are button copy. It says "(63) SOUTH / Kalihi St / ↓".


Leaving Waikiki and heading northward on McCully St. The second photo points eastward on Kapi`olani Blvd, and the fourth is the onramp turn at Metcalf St. and Dole St. I think these are city/county shields (Honolulu is both, like Jacksonville or Indianapolis), because the state is more likely to do something like the shield atop the page. Both varieties use the state name and the outdated hyphen, which most new shields omit, but the city/county's are one-piece RIDOT varieties.
Westbound


My first two photos are onramps. The first photo, where the WEST banner should be traded with the mainline shield in the header photo, is the Exit 23 onramp from Lunalilo St. at Ernest St. The second photo is on Punchbowl St. NB and is indeed button copy. As I said above, the modern H1 shield is not hyphenated. "I-H-1" just looks messy.


Sandwiching button copy between newer failed signs - and the third photo mixes both. The HI shields for Exit 21B and 20A are too triangular and too small for overhead signs. The I-H201 shields in the third and fourth photos, as well as everywhere else they've been installed, are stretched two-digit shields. They measure the standard 30"x24" or 45"x36", but the three-digit spec is pointier on either side of the top. It's tough to fit four characters in that space anyway. Perhaps Hawai`i should experiment with widening three-digit shields to be 36"x24" and 54"x36".


More button copy and an original 1950's gantry. The Arizona Memorial Stadium is not in Hawai`i or anywhere else. It's two different destinations, but HDOT had and possibly still has a problem with sign layout. Put "Stadium" (Aloha Stadium) on top and the ambiguity disappears, although most people going to the Arizona Memorial are probably looking for Pearl Harbor, a much better destination.
Eastbound


To make the last sign look a little better, make it one sign with one exit tab and try to spread HI 78 between both lanes with a single message.


This is even more nonstandard than the last time I had to pause for a caption. In most states, HOV/Express lane signage is either black on white or white on green. Black on yellow is for warning signs; the left sign is more regulatory in nature (black on white) and the right sign should be mostly white on green except for the ONLY text. Notice that this new gantry looks just like the old ones (scroll up to Westbound).


A couple of Exit 15 ramp signs; half a sign is better than none.


There, in the second photo, is how Express signage is supposed to look. So why can't they do it everywhere? The last photo is on the Exit 18B ramp to former HI 90 (Dillingham).


There's no HI 98 shield on the Exit 20B advance sign, but then when that highway comes back on at Exit 22, there's an END shield and milepost. HI 98 flows directly into I-H1 on both ends, perhaps a candidate to be Hawai`i's only Business route (Kaua`i's lies notwithstanding) and also reflecting one of the last links of I-H1 to be completed (former HI 72, which still takes over for I-H1 to the east - thanks, Oscar Voss).
Exit 13A to I-H3
Exit 15A to HI 99
Exit 15 or 18 to HI 92
Exit 19B to I-H201
Exit 21B to HI 61
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