Community feedback on the size and scope of Honolulu’s future rail stations has helped save the project some $100 million in design and construction costs, the city’s top rail official said Tuesday.
Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation CEO Dan Grabauskas made his remarks in Waipahu as he and other officials, including Mayor Kirk Caldwell, unveiled a miniature model of the West Loch station and announced new meetings for the public to weigh in on several of the stations that will dot a 20-mile elevated rail line.
The cost savings, based on initial design and construction estimates, come from decisions to standardize features such as stairs, elevators, escalators, lighting fixtures and other equipment across the future rail system’s 21 stations, Grabauskas and other HART officials said. Such a move will eventually help streamline construction and save on maintenance costs, they said.
Earlier station designs were larger and more elaborate, but “frankly the community pushed back on it and so did our budget department,” Grabauskas told reporters gathered Tuesday near the corner of Farrington Highway and Leoku Street.
Caldwell said he believed the station would help restore his hometown of Waipahu. “In the old days it was a true neighborhood that’s kind of fallen apart as it became very car-oriented,” Caldwell said standing over the model. “With this station being located here, I think we’re going to see a new community grow up around here that’s going to pull the best of the past.”
The news conference started about 15 minutes late, mostly thanks to Ewa-bound traffic being snarled on H-1 — precisely the type of situation that rail proponents have highlighted to justify the $5.26 billion project. However, many opponents of rail, an effort that has been debated for decades, question whether an elevated steel-on-steel rail line is the best approach to help ease Honolulu’s growing traffic congestion woes. Some opponents have suggested adding traffic lanes to accommodate more vehicles and express buses as more effective and making better sense for the island.
The first in the latest round of community meetings will be held Tuesday at Waipahu Intermediate School, 94-455 Farrington Highway, for public input on the planned West Loch, Waipahu Transit Center and Leeward Community College stations, according to HART. Registration is at 6 p.m., and the meeting starts at 6:30 p.m.
The next meeting, to discuss the East Kapolei and UH-West Oahu stations, will be held July 30 at Kapolei Hale, 1000 Uluohia St., according to HART. Registration again is at 6 p.m., with the meeting starting 6:30 p.m.
