Interstate H-201 is the only auxiliary Interstate Highway located in the U.S. state of Hawaii, serving the island of O‘ahu. The H-201 designation is also known as the Moanalua Freeway. The loop route connects exits 13 and 19 on H-1, passing Fort Shafter, Tripler Army Medical Center, and Red Hill. Despite being designated an Interstate in 1989, until mid-2004 the route was an unsigned Interstate, signed only as Route 78. The section of the Moanalua Freeway between Route 99 and the western H-1 interchange remains designated as Route 78.
History
The length of H-201 was originally designated as Route 78. The Federal Highway Administration approved the addition of H-201 to the Interstate Highway System on November 1, 1989. The Hawaii Department of Transportation asked that the Moanalua Freeway be reclassified as an Interstate so that the interchange with H-1 at the eastern end could conform to federal highway standards. HDOT originally asked the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in June 1990 to approve the freeway as H-1A in an application to AASHTO's Special Committee on U.S. Route Numbering, the committee which approves Interstate Highway designations. HDOT resubmitted a request later that year to number it as H-101, and AASHTO approved it as H-201 on December 8, 1990. The highway was initially designated H-1A, but AASHTO policy does not generally allow alphabetic suffixes in Interstate numbers. The final designation, H-201, conforms to the general rule for three-digit Interstate loop routes that uses an even initial digit. Until 2004, the state Department of Transportation chose not to sign H-201 as such, instead retaining the designation Route 78. Reasons given included the following:
inability to render the new route number in a legible manner
encouraging motorists to use the newer and better designed H-1
In July 2004, in conjunction with a major resurfacing of both sides of the freeway, it was decided to bring the signage in line with the official designation.
