The
Hawaii Department of Transportation
The Hawaii Department of Transportation (HDOT) is a state government organization which oversees transportation in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The agency is divided into three divisions dealing with aviation, maritime, and roads.
HDOT Divisions Ai ...
(HDOT) maintains the smallest state-maintained system of
state highways in the country. It consists of
Interstates, state highways, and secondary state highways, totaling approximately .
The state's four Interstates, all located on O‘ahu, are built to
mainland standards unlike their counterparts in
Alaska and
Puerto Rico. The first three routes (
H-1,
H-2, and
H-3) were approved in 1960, while an auxiliary route (
H-201) was added in 1989.
Primary and auxiliary interstates
Primary and secondary routes
The current state (then territorial) highway numbering system was established in 1955. Route numbers are organized so that the initial digit corresponds to the island:
* Numbers beginning with 1 or 2:
Hawaiʻi
* Numbers beginning with 3:
Maui
The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...
* Numbers beginning with 4:
Molokaʻi
Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length and width with a us ...
,
Lānaʻi
Lanai ( haw, Lānai, , , also ,) is the sixth-largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the smallest publicly accessible inhabited island in the chain. It is colloquially known as the Pineapple Island because of its past as an island-wide pineapple pl ...
* Numbers beginning with 5:
Kauaʻi
Kauai, () anglicized as Kauai ( ), is geologically the second-oldest of the main Hawaiian Islands (after Niʻihau). With an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), it is the fourth-largest of these islands and the List of islands of th ...
* Numbers beginning with 6 to 9:
Oʻahu
Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O’ ...
In general, two-digit numbers are primary highways, maintained by the state. Three-digit routes are typically secondary arterials or collectors, while four-digit routes are typically collectors and minor roads. For secondary routes, the first two digits generally relate to the associated primary route. Many secondary routes are county-maintained and unsigned, their route numbers being used merely by state agencies as an asset-tracking measure.
When referring to highways, Hawaiʻi residents usually refer to state highways by their names instead of their route numbers (e.g. ''Kamehameha Highway'' instead of
Route 99). Note that one named highway may encompass several route numbers (e.g. Kamehameha Highway, which carries Routes 80, 83, 99, and 830 at various points along its length) and vice versa.
Temporary Federal routes
During
World War II, a temporary Federal route numbering system was setup on the island of Oahu. They were used to assist military personnel not accustomed to the Hawaiian street names during the time of
Martial law in the
Territory of Hawaii from 1941 to 1945. Though marked with
U.S. Route shields, they were never part of the
United States Numbered Highway System.
See also
*
*
References
External links
AARoads Hawaii Highways PageHawaii Highways
{{Hawaii
1955 establishments in Hawaii
State Highways
Hawaii