HONOLULU -- Leeward Community College is seeing record enrollment this year, as is University of Hawaii-West Oahu, which shares the campus.

But the growth has brought a big problem: one of the Oahu’s worst traffic messes.

The state put LCC at the intersection of three freeways to offer convenience for students from central and West Oahu students, but the campus was never directly connected to any of the freeways.

With just one narrow access road, two-lane Ala Ike Street,vehicles bringing more than 10,000 students a day to the campus back up over the freeway onto Farrington Highway, which then backs up west back up Kamehameha Highway and H-1 freeway in Waipahu. Another jam extends east into Pearl City.

“Pearl City is the worst backed up,” said pre-med student Barbara Gaoiran. “You are going less than 5 to 10 miles an hour and everyone is trying to merge and there's people that don't want to let you go.”

Students said they can't give up their cars because bus service is inadequate and they need to get to jobs after schoo, said nursing student Allyza Calderon.

“Sometimes, I just want to stay in school and just wait till the traffic dies,” said Calderon. “But then I’ve just got to go already, because I have to get to my job.”

Record enrollment has made traffic and parking worse, but Mark Lane vice chancellor of Administrative Services said the problem is neither new nor unexpected. Lane said the Hawaii Department of Transportation has been studying the best way to provide a second access since the campus was built 40 years ago.

Lane said the end of the problem may be in sight. The city’s plan for rail transit includes two stops for the campus. The Department of Transportation said it has had a plan on the books for an access road which has passed environmental review. The problem is the university would have to pay about $23 million for construction.