The Kapolei Transit Center at the end of Wakea Street is being shut down permanently at 9 a.m. today and relocated, at least temporarily, to a new two-block section of Haumea Street several hundred feet away.

The city Department of Transportation Services is vacating and taking down the Wakea location, sandwiched between a Zippy's and the Kapolei Theaters complex, to make way for the upcoming H-1 Freeway interchange.

The transit center has been a busy hub for the area for scores of TheBus riders as a transfer, pick-up and drop-off spot since it was constructed several years ago. It includes restrooms, benches and sheltered areas.

Now Kapolei transit users are being asked to move two blocks south onto a new two-block section of Haumea between Wakea and Ulu'ohia streets. The area has no shade but will eventually have benches and portable toilets, said James Burke, chief of the city's Public Transit Division.

All the buses that travel through Kapolei — essentially nine different routes — are making the switch. They are routes C (Country Express!), 40 and 40A (Makaha), 41 (Kapolei-'Ewa Beach), 411 (Makakilo Heights), 412 (Panana-Kapolei), 413 (Campbell Industrial Park), 4141 (Palahi'a-Makakilo-Kapolei) and 415 (Kapolei-Kalaeloa).

Long-range plans call for the transit station to be permanently relocated another two blocks south at the end of Ulu'ohia at an undetermined time, Burke said, although the exact location could change.

The additional two-block extension of Haumea could also be viewed as a benefit to motorists, who now have a straight shot from the Kapolei Regional Park to the State Office Building and Kapolei Hale, both of which are off Ulu'ohia.

Construction on the first phase of the new interchange is slated to begin this year, DOT spokesman Scott Ishikawa said. That first phase will allow motorists to enter the H-1 from Kapolei heading Honolulu-bound, come from the Wai'anae side and get off the freeway into Kapolei, and enter the freeway from Makakilo Drive going Wai'anae-bound, he said.

"The whole intent is to try to siphon traffic that's now going into downtown Kapolei," he said. "It's already busy with the shopping center and the park on the weekends so if we can add these interchange features, you won't have to go into downtown Kapolei to go from one side to the other."

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.