The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation approved a six-year, $2.79 billion construction spending plan for the Honolulu rail project Thursday over the objections of a handful of rail opponents.

The board had discussed components of the rail construction funding schedule in a series of previous meetings, but voted unanimously without discussion Thursday to approve the plan for the period from 2013 through 2018.

The six-year plan includes $1.83 billion in actual construction spending on the 20-mile raised guideway and related facilities, and $482 million to purchase equipment for the rail system.

The plan also includes $164 million for land purchases and relocation assistance for homes and businesses in the path of the elevated rail line, and $306 million for planning, design and inspection work for the rail system.

The entire rail system is expected to cost $5.27 billion, making it the largest public works project in Hawaii history. Construction of the elevated guideway that will carry the train is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2012.

Tom Coffman, local author and a board member of the environmental group Hawai’i’s Thousand Friends, told the board that if the six-year plan is adopted and implemented, it would "essentially seal the fate of this project."

Coffman urged the board to slow down and clearly explain to the public exactly what has been accomplished with the money that has been spent.

HART officials say the city has spent about $342 million in local and federal funds on the rail project to date, including money spent on planning, environmental studies, preliminary design and other work.

Coffman and longtime rail opponent Cliff Slater also suggested the board should delay the project until the federal government has firmly committed $1.55 billion in federal money for the rail system, and should wait until a federal lawsuit challenging the project has been resolved.

Toru Hamayasu, interim executive director of HART, said the board was required under the city charter to approve a six-year construction program by the end of the year.

He said the city is following a step-by-step process that is dictated by the requirements of the federal government, and said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood recently remarked that Honolulu is doing the rail project "by the book."

"This is how it’s done," Hamayasu said.

Carrie Okinaga, chairwoman of the HART board of directors, said Thursday she will be taking a new job as senior vice president in the legal division of First Hawaiian Bank. She will start her new job Tuesday.

Okinaga was Honolulu corporation counsel, or the chief civil attorney, for the city until she resigned on June 30 and joined the HART board. The HART position is unpaid, and Okinaga said she will serve out her five-year term.

Don Horner, another member of the HART board, is retiring as chief executive officer of First Hawaiian Bank but has said he will also continue to serve on the HART board.