HONOLULU (KHON2) — The city is asking visitors and residents to stay out of Lanikai and go to another beach instead. Parking restrictions are now in effect to reduce congestion during a major construction project in Kailua. Get Hawaii's latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for News 2 You City transportation officials are asking residents and visitors to avoid the Lanikai area during the current phase of its Kalapawai Roundabout Construction Project. "We just ask that if you go to a different beach, if you can, visit somewhere else," stated Jon Nouchi, Department of Transportation Services (DTS) deputy director. "We've also partnered and delivered this message to our tourism partners so that our visitors can also be advised that this might not be the best time to visit." Those exiting Lanikai will have to take the detour route through Kailua Beach Park. DTS said it's trying to minimize the impact wherever it can, but the hours-long traffic says otherwise. "Yesterday, we did have a terrible back up. We had a downed power line. We had, on top of that, two brush fires," stated Rep. Lisa Marten. "Separately, and related to those fires, there was an ambulance that came in and that ambulance had to fight their way out very slowly, going one or two miles an hour, getting through all the traffic." No parking will be allowed on all streets and shoulders of Mokulua and A'alapapa Drives until the ends of the current phase. Shop owners in the area stated the project seems to be "never-ending," and has disrupted business in more ways than one. "It's kind of a little bit dangerous, too, since drivers get really confused about how the roundabout's working," stated Hailey Zalopany, a worker in the area. "Half of our parking lot is now gone. They kind of, like, ripped it up. A lot of local people that live in the area can't really swing by easily and they have less desire to come." Others like Bob's Pizzeria agreed stating the community, "doesn't want to come sometimes because of the traffic." "They had to put speed bumps because people were driving so fast that it actually was kind of dangerous," said Lindsey Festa from Bob's Pizzeria. State leaders also said finishing the roundabout has been a slow process. Find more Hawaii, Oahu, Maui and Kauai news here "It's still a daily annoyance, extra time doing particular detours through neighborhoods, having parts blocked off, etc," said Rep. Marten. "We've lost our resilience. When you have a baseline like this, very slow moving traffic, a lot of obstruction, then when you have other things added to it, really bad things could happen."