Rail work to be delayed while officials wrangle over funding
STAR-ADVERTISER
Don Horner. HART board chairman
Amid uncertainty over whether there will be sufficient cash to build the full 20-mile line, rail officials have halted issuing the contract for the last stretch of the transit system until the Honolulu City Council decides on a tax extension to pay for it.
The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, which oversees construction of the cash-strapped rail project, had been scheduled Thursday to select (but not publicly disclose) up to three qualified finalists to build the system’s final eight stations and approximately 4.3 miles of elevated guideway, which ends at Ala Moana Center. HART has dubbed that stretch the “City Center” section.
Instead, the rail agency’s board opted to put that selection on hold.
Its members, along with HART’s executive director, expressed concerns that any bid prices the rail agency gets right now to build the City Center section will be substantially higher than expected if they move forward with the process. That’s because the competing firms will increase their prices if they’re going to take on a contract that doesn’t guarantee they’ll be fully paid, rail officials said.
HART’s official cost estimates for Honolulu’s rail project have swelled in recent months to about $6.57 billion, meaning the project now faces an approximate $1.3 billion budget shortfall.
“We thought it was prudent to recommend to the board that we pause and not issue … until funding was available,” HART Executive Director Dan Grabauskas said after Thursday’s HART board meeting. The agency expects the City Council will take a final vote in late January on Bill 23, which would enact a five-year rail tax extension that’s expected to raise around $1.5 billion.
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If the Council passes the full tax extension, HART could select its finalists to build the last stretch of rail in the beginning of February, about six weeks away, Grabauskas said.
That full tax extension remains far from certain, however.
At the Council’s meeting last week, a slim majority of members expressed support for capping the amount that could be spent on rail at $910 million. The figure, proposed by Council Chairman Ernie Martin, is based on previous shortfall estimates. Rail officials have said that won’t be enough to finish the project.
Grabauskas on Thursday called it a “tough hypothetical” when asked what would happen to rail’s City Center section — or the future of the project — if the Council passed the extension with the proposed cap. “We’d have to see what was passed, what direction this legislative body was giving to us, and then make a determination,” he said.
Martin has said the cap is needed to “stop the bleeding” and hold rail spending to better accountability. Mayor Kirk Caldwell has already lobbied for the Council to disregard Martin’s proposed cap because rail’s federal transportation partners have signaled the move would jeopardize some $250 million in federal funding to help complete rail.
Despite the delay, HART board members Thursday said it’s within the City Council’s prerogative to take the time it needs to rule on the tax extension. “We appreciate the fact that we don’t print money in this organization. It’s really up to the elected officials to decide … and do their due diligence to ensure that we’re doing our job properly,” Don Horner, chairman of HART’s board of directors, said Thursday. “Mistakes have been made in the first phase (of the project). They should be concerned. We don’t say that clearly, I do think we learned … so hopefully they’ll grant us the extension.”
During last week’s Council meeting, Martin said that he had discussed the tax extension with Gov. David Ige after the state gave the Council the authority to consider the tax extension. Martin said that Ige had expressed his support for letting the Council take the time it needs to deliberate on the issue.
Grabauskas said he didn’t have estimates on how much it would cost to delay the process of awarding rail’s City Center section contract by about six weeks. HART nonetheless believed it made more financial sense to proceed with that delay rather than to take its chances with price proposals loaded with risk, he added.
Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. is building the first 10 miles of guideway, with separate firms building the stations along that stretch.
Meanwhile the rail agency is still moving ahead to award the contract to build the 5.2 miles of elevated guideway and four station around the airport because the money is available for that work, Grabauskas said. HART has already selected the finalists for that stretch but hasn’t disclosed who those firms or groups are. The public will likely learn who they are in March, when HART plans to award the contract, Grabauskas added.
The rail’s completion is estimated to be nearly two years behind schedule, with officials now expecting to finish the full public transit project toward the end of 2021.
147 responses to “Rail work to be delayed while officials wrangle over funding”
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Everyone is doing their due diligence to get rail done right. Hopefully the rail tax extension can get done expeditiously to keep further delays and cost overruns at a minimum. The bottom line is that rail infrastructure is essential for world class transportation of a modern city to benefit our long term future. We need to take our steps carefully now to ensure that rail can be completed as planned from Kapolei all the way to Ala Moana. A rail project short of this objective will not give west side residents the relief that they need from their present commute in horrendous traffic.
ukuleleblue wrote: “We need to take our steps carefully now to ensure that rail can be completed as planned from Kapolei all the way to Ala Moana”
The train doesn’t go into Kapolei! It goes to a new land scheme outside of Kapolei. If you live in Kapolei and want to ride the train you will either need to take a bus to the train or gamble on trying to find a parking spot in their comically small lot.
Likewise, the train’s claimed purpose for existing was to go to UH. It doesn’t do that either. It goes to a luxury mall owned by tax exempt mainland based trust instead.
Now, don’t you think a train that doesn’t serve either the west side communities it was promised to, nor go to the destination it was promised to, and instead serves developers and construction interests should be paid for by these same developers and construction interests? Why tax struggling families’ food, medicine and rent for this corporate welfare?
Now, why are you still refusing to tell us where it is that you live on the mainland and what your connection is to this mess of a rail project?
Correct, it goes from the Kroc Center to Ala Moana McDonalds. Only retirees will ride it, by the time it is completed, I will be retired anyway.
We all need to look far into the future and see how we will eventually have absolute need for modern rail infrastructure to serve the needs of our growing population. There is an interesting book in the travel section at Barnes & Nobles that has all the rail transit maps of all the cities all over the world and Honolulu is included. If one looks at the book, we can see we are way behind in having modern transportation to serve our urban area. Rail is the future and cities are expanding their systems and becoming less car-centric. We are way behind and this is our best opportunity to get on track. We need to stay the course and get rail finished as planned for the benefit of our children and grandchildren.
We are a small island with a small population. Oahu can’t afford rail. This is not a game of keeping up with the Joneses.
If rail was such a good idea, it could have been built by a for profit company like Japan did.
Of course, Ukuleleblue is paid to write nice things about rail so I guess we just have to disregard his propaganda.
ukuleleblue says: “We all need to look far into the future and see how we will eventually have absolute need for modern rail infrastructure to serve the needs of our growing population. ”
Maybe while you’re there in the future, riding the developer train to luxury mall, you can tell us how many more “unexpected” cost over-runs and multimillion dollar change orders we can expect?
And while you are at it, don’t you think it’s time you finally told us where it is that you live on the mainland and what your connection is to this mess of a rail project?
IIRC we will be riding rail in a couple years.
No we won’t be riding rail in a couple of years. It won’t be completed and will be a “couple” more billion in budgets deficits.
check the schedule on the HART website. SA is keeping mum on that.
wilikitutu – HART website is a work of fiction. Doesn’t want to mention rail is 100% and climbing over budget, over a year behind schedule with no solid completion date in site.
No clue how much rail will cost to ride, where the power source will come from and who is paying for it, how much rail will cost to maintain per year.
Yes, rail is the worst event to happen to our children and grandchildren. They will always ask why their parents didn’t have a clue to how much rail would hurt their future, forever buckling under the crushing cost of yearly O&M. ANother endless Nei money pit.
RUSTY THE HATED SCREECHING RAIL REARS ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN & AGAIN- The reality is that its not one year behind schedule but now its 2 years behind schedule. Read the article! this entire project should have been stopped long ago and is being built on lies. deception & Backroom deals that involve GREEN CASH PAYOFFS. The entire city Council is owned by the rail contractors see the charts to follow: We found that the nefarious Pacific Resource Partnership ( PRP) supported Carol Fukunaga with $86,000 in advertising for her 2012 election. AND under a different name, they gave Brandon Elefante $105,000 in advertising support. With this money, the percentage of Elefante’s support from the Ho’opili and Rail construction community jumped to 91%. Pretty amazing! He sure wasn’t going to vote against them!
Here’s The Friends of Makakilo breakdown on City Council campaign contributions:
Council Member Total Contributions Amount from Hoopili/Rail Interests Percent
Kymberly Pine $160,879 $116,801 72%
Ernie Martin $451,240 $268,017 59%
Ikaika Anderson $139,518 $100,668 72%
Trevor Ozawa $183,320 $104,550 57%
Ann Kobayashi $57,136 $24,450 43%
Carol Fukunaga $258,321 $104,565 40%
Joey Manahan $182,215 $83,512 46%
Brandon Elefante $37,322 $24,292 65%
Ron Menor $48,405 $34,650 72%
What e need to do is stop RAIL NOW
HART IS DELAYING THE BID OPENING INTENTIONALLY.
If the bids were opened and showed that the rail project will require hundreds of millions more than the GET surcharge extension will provide, the City Council will certainly vote to turn down the surcharge and demand that a Plan “B” be implemented to shorten the rail route to Aloha Stadium or Middle Street.
Yes I thought the same thing. Horny, Cadwell and Grabourmoneycuz all do a similar dance – they lie when their lips move. Believe nothing the city tells you about rail. And ukus, I would ask you to read the Mayor’s OWN CONSULTANT’S REPORT. The consultant is highly critical of the way rail has been run here, but you’ll never see a story on that is the pro-rail SA. Read Civil Beat for honest information.
They are vetting contractors, not sitting on bids.
Civil Beat is a Republican publication.
Civil beat has the truth. Unlike wiliki or ukuleleblue.
The Republican”truth”..
wilikitutu – Civil beat is the standard of openness, fair reporting. Meanwhile Grabby and HART are spinning lies every day as they try to hide their failure to do their jobs.
Rail will take and take and take from taxpayers, deliver very little in return.
Our children and grandchildren forever trying to survive after paying rail’s crushing yearly subsidy.
Exactly my thought. I Wonder if HART had another closed door meeting on how to make the council aprrove the extention without the cap? They conspired again to put the blame on anther entity so when rail costs increase theycan blame the City Council, just like they tried to blame the lawsuits for the increased cost. HARTtakes no responsibility for the increased costof rail
Based on the time of his FIRST post (3:10 am), UB is either on the mainland and/or getting paid to watch this website 24 hours to be the first to post (and maybe being tipped off by someone at SA).
Uku never gets it right, just regurgitates the same ole rail shibai over and over.
If everyone involved with rail had done their “Due Diligence” rail would be On Time, On Budget. Sad to say from day one rail has been over budget, way behind schedule. Proof those bureaucrats in charge haven’t got a clue.
We need to stop the rail fund bleeding now. IAW the Feds and Jacobs Report, ending rail at the Middle Street Bus Terminal is the right way to go. Not only will it reduce the fund hemorrhaging by almost a billion dollars, it will reduce construction time and help to lower the crushing cost of rail’s yearly O&M.
For the sake of our children and grandchildren’s financial future, we need to end this debacle now. Even then they will forever be living under the weight of paying rail subsidies, growing yearly, for their entire working life. This will lower their quality of life, force many to move to the mainland.
Our children and grandchildren will always look back and wonder how their parents could have been so easily duped to build the Nei’s biggest money pit ever, rail.
Rail has been delayed by frivolous lawsuits.
So post your evidence instead of spouting lies for once, wiliki.
Wiliki, name the one lawsuit that resulted in a court ordered work stoppage that caused a delay in building rail.
Cheek the SA, suits are in the public record.
wilikitutu – Due to the utter incompetence of rail management bureaucrats, failure to do their jobs, the lawsuits were required to correct their illegal work acts. Trying to say all was well when Grabby & HART knew their acts were illegal. The Judge had to slap them down hard to get them to do their jobs. Even now they still have problems, are legends in their own mind.
Wiliki made the claims that lawsuits delayed rail. Prove it. Articles wont prove anything unless it explicitly says sail was delayed over a frivolous lawsuit. On the other hand, a lawsuit filed because HART and the City didn’t do their jobs and follow laws is not frivolous.
You could truthfully say grabby’s and the city’s incompetence caused delays to the rail.
wilikitutu says: Cheek the SA, suits are in the public record.
Typical of wiliki. Called their bluff on the “frivolous lawsuit” claim, and can’t answer it.
The answer is simple. None. There was no frivolous lawsuit that caused rail construction to be delayed. All delays was cause and fault of the city and HART. The frivolous lawsuit claim is just pro-railers making things up.
A separate light rail was also to circulate in Waikiki and ultimately go to the Ala Moana rail station.
I wonder if ukuleleblue will move here?
Gruber Hawaii
From Obamacare…homeless…rail…full circle!
You forgot Bush’s 9/11?
Mayor Caldwell and Obama have been doing outstanding jobs. Republicans in Congress have realised they will become like in Hawaii if they don’t stop their craziness and start doing the work that they were elected to do.
wilikitutu – Wrong again. Our Mayor is on his last term, trying hard to save his failing political career. Rail is his undoing, he is damaged goods, no longer credible.
Then again, rail was never, ever, credible. Built entirely on a pack of lies.
Uku, if everyone was doing their due diligence, we wouldn’t be in this financial mess.
Actually, they did their due diligence to find out how much money they could all make from this debacle.
Ahh, that due diligence!
When two sides sign a contract, its terms are supposed to be binding. If we ask for changes, we must pay extra for each and every “change order.” Fair enough. But how does the contractor get away with changing the price we must pay merely because the contractor has now decided to pay its workers higher wages? Just say no. Hold them to the terms of the contract.
Ken contracts that extend over a period of time may have escalation provisions based on union wage rates. That’s common. The problem is this train is just a bad idea.
uku=BS !! What happened to all the money ?
The entire dishonest, inept project needs to end. Wrong design, outdated technology and the wrong route combined with massive dishonesty are adding up to a disaster for Honolulu.
Outdated technology? Sounds like the post office. The mainland sends their junk machine to Hawaii, and we send our junk machine to Guam.
Actually USPS is light years ahead in technology than the entire state of Hawaii is. They too can track packages at any time, indicate when dropped off, etc.
State of Hawaii can’t even tell you how many inmates they sent to the mainland, still maintains paper records, still has computers with monochrome monitors running DOS. Hawaii is the most tech backwards state in the world.
mike doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
wilikitutu – He isn’t the only one who doesn’t know what they are talking about. Hint. Hint.
Uku: What about the subject of this article? In the past, you’ve always emphasized how the delays by opponents have caused the project’s cost to increase and if it weren’t for the delays, the cost wouldn’t be exceeding the proposed cost. Now that more funding is needed and because of this, the rail work will be delayed while officials wrangle over funding. When the subject is not to your advantage, you avoid the truth and continue to use your monotonous paste-up. Com-on man, let’s hear about delays and what it will do to cause increased funding.
Kahuku, you hit the nail on the head. That’s why uku isn’t whining about this delay.
Baloney. His well-informed and sticks to the truth.
Ukulele as usual, posting his BS. This rail line will not be world class. It is a 20 mile stretch from near Kapolei to a shopping mall. We did not get UH Manoa as advertised. For a while, the city was almost dumb enough to not have the rail stop at the airport.
The solution is to stop at Middle street to save billions of dollars and ensure the future of our children and grandchildren.
With all those west side cars off the road, shuttle buses can whisk the riders from Middle street to their final destinations.
The solution is to kill rail and put it and the public out of misery.
Its to late for many Waipahu Business owners who have either given up or in Dept to their necks
This is a joke. Shuttles will get stuck in Horrendous traffic.
So why have rail? Most people need a shuttle to get to the rail station?
SA survey results are in. The most frequent post of 2015: “Ukuleleblue = BS”
Without rail, our children and grandchildren have no future.
“”Without rail, our children and grandchildren have no future.””
Wiliki keeps saying this because he’s cashing in on the rail project.
Oh boy, here you go — world class rail and modern city? Afraid not. More of a concrete jungle with all views of older buildings and houses obstructed.
ukuleleblue= lies and deception and prays on the stupid
So, now the shortfall has risen to $1.3 billion and the schedule cannot be completed on time. That is $3.9 million (43% increase) over the $910 million figure that was presented to the Legislature, Public and the City Council less than a year ago. The Social Security Administration recently issued a letter indicating there would be not increases to retiree/disability payments because the cost-of-living for the past year had not increased. By all measures, capping the costs on this circus should be of the highest priority and the primary consideration should be to shorten the project to a terminal location where it can be completed on time within the $910 million shortfall (as it was presented to the legislature last session). It has become quite obvious that both HART and the Mayor’s administration have been deceiving the legislature, the Public and the City Council all along. This nonsense coming from Horner and Caldwell regarding the additional costs and timeframe are beyond the realm of credibility at this time.
Correction: $390 million, not $3.9 million as I miss-calculated in the second sentence .
Yeah, and that “Lame Duck” Martin wanted to put a cap on the $910 million? Only a person with a right mind and common sense would have known, that putting a cap on a construction project’s funding, especially one of this magnitude, would have never passed for approval. All of these wackos (HART and city officials) that are involved with the construction of the rail system are getting to be desperate, hanging on the cliff with their finger nails and the wrangling continues and will continue until the city admits bankruptcy. Com-on man, it’s obvious that the shortfall will exceed the present $1.3 billion and more and more wrangling will continue. And why will this be happening? Incompetent people that have no experience about construction, how to fund and build a rail system, and poor planning and leadership, all this in a nutshell causes delays, more money and more wrangling and bankruptcy is imminent.
What’s a few hundred million when we blowing billions on a ridiculously stupid project being run by ridiculously stupid people? Well said commentary ShibaiDakine right with you.
All this BS from HART will provide the Mayor justification to raise property tax to keep funding the “Stone Hedge” of Oahu.
The busy and hectic days before Christmas are traditionally when HART announces its worst news. Aside from new delays, I wonder what else they’ll drop on us.
I see the Star-Advertiser ignoring the new change orders Kiewit is demanding: http://khon2.com/2015/12/17/thursdays-need-to-know-23/
Can we find the Kiewit workers at the beach while the city is deliberating on how many zeros should be at the end of every comma?
Or the one about the Land ownership dispute on queen street. http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/30771648/land-ownership-dispute-clouds-rail-acquisition. More money gonna be spent now.
agree. This fiasco is terrifying to the monopoly party out here. It may create a tipping point when the public determines they can not take any more pain. I hope so. Hawaii needs to get off the Democratic Party plantation. It has been so primitive.
Get off the democrat party plantation, are you serious?
SA is also ignoring the mayor’s own consultant who is highly critical of rail. If you don’t believe what the majority of posters are saying read the mayor’s own consultant report.
Over a billion over budget and yes our elected politicians will once again come to the rescue by raising taxes. Our delegation in Washington will of course do whatever they are told by Master Obama. Not one of these people can think for themselves or come up with solutions. They all knew the rail would go over budget , increase taxes and be a burden on our economy. Yet they held hands and went all in against the will of the people. If you think Hawaii’s legislature represents “you”, you are wrong. They represent the Democratic Party.
Correction, the budget is over $3 Billion: from $3.2 Billion to $6.6 Billion.
If you think rail is going to give relief to commuters your an idiot. Stopping every mile is ridiculous and it will fail. What a waste of resources. Only in Hawaii.
Spot on. All we needed was maybe 6 stations. Since bus routes will be cancelled directly to town, those buses could have taken people to the stations to ride. We did not need 21 stops. Or if we did, the stop could have just bee a platform like they have in Japan. Much cheaper than building a full station.
What no one in charge of rail wants to talk about is when a full rail train pulls up at a station and no one can get on. Next train comes, same problem.
All thanks to the false idea our rail cars should resemble tourist busses with seats protruding into the center of the car. Anyone who has ridden on the world’s most efficient rail system, Japan, knows they only have seats along the sides. Center area is open for standing passengers, allowing the cars to easily operate at max capacity.
Nei rail commuters will have to share space with surfboards, homeless and their shopping carts, ADA scooters, strollers, airport travelers and their suitcases, the list of space users is endless.
localguy,
You are correct. With seats only along the edges, it leaves more room for standing passengers and it also makes entering and exiting the rail much quicker and easier, even for the elderly and handicapped.
All that matters with me on this rail is to keep the restrooms alive.
Typical last word in every project is the word, money.
The problem is not the funding. It is about the amount of funding. Hard to squeeze in that bonus check for the Mayor.
HART’s ploy is to blame the council for further delays and cost over runs. Very clever.
I think HART is putting the squeeze on the Council. If the Council wants it done (and they do) then the delay is designed to put more pressure on them to approve the extension without the cap. First the Feds withholding the $250 million, now HART.
Can’t blame me. I was not been there…
just stop the entire project now, where and as it stands! redirect the funds collected from the GE Tax extension to more meaningful infra-structure projects. let the feds REDIRECT OUR MONEY it had promised to the rail to support those other more meaningful projects. this entire project was never one to serve the general populace in our state but to fill the pockets of a select few. the question of what percent of the total number now employed on the rail ever LIVED IN HAWAII for 5 years prior to having been hired has never been answered! that will tell us exactly to what extent our local population is benefiting.
$6.7 billion from the original estimate of $3.5 billion that Mufi was trying to sell us on. Back then, I estimated the cost to be double digit billion and looks like it’s creeping up there. For all you guys voting for the rail, hope you’re happy.
None of this makes any sense. What is the reason for changing contractors for the elevated guideway? The initial contractor has the equipment and experience after building 10 miles but they want to change contractors now? Why is that? Does that mean that the new contractor has to buy the equipment from the initial contractor or make new equipment? Every where you turn someone other than the taxpayer is making money on this farce.
agree
First of all that Federal Transportation official Therese McMillan is out of line and should be investigated for using her position of authority to unduly influence other state tax matters. Second, Federal Davis Bacon contracts are the most secure you can get so its pure baloney what Caldwell Horner and Ukeleleblue/Grabauskas are implying about the bid situation. Most of the contractors have a rep on the PRP board and Caldwell cannot say anything about their gouging bids or face loss of campaign monies. As for Horner, most of the economic meltdowns were the result of excessive banker greed. Never trust a banker, bought politicians, contractors and reject transit heads.
Why do you think D-B applies to the rail contracts?
What a Mess. Hasn’t anyone tried to stop this in the courts? You might as well shut down Kam Hwy
Was there yesterday in Pearl City; thought it was shut-down.
I know that the rail is still being erected when I see all that dust from the heavy equipment.
STOP THE MADDNESS AND FIRE HORNER AND CALDWELL
Another example of the Mayor, Hart and all the contractors stealing from the taxpayers. Look at the recent audit report on H Power and the picture looks similar.
Shut it down already. Stop the bleeding. All the rail did was bankrupt businesses, disrupt traffic and put a lot of people in a foul mood. Now HART needs more money. When does it all stop. I say NOW!!!!!!!
To start fixing this mess they need to replace the current program manager Grabawski with someone who knows how to manage large complex projects on time and on budget. Clearly he is not competent at the job and everyone is paying for it.
From May 27, 2012 Star-Advertiser:
Honolulu has spent $65 million in federal funds on planning and engineering work so far,
but would not necessarily have to repay those funds in the event of a shutdown here.
New Jersey officials had signed an early system work agreement with the FTA that
legally required that federal funds be repaid if New Jersey terminated the project for
reasons within the control of the state.
Honolulu has no such agreement with the FTA, meaning it is less likely the FTA would
require that the federal funds spent in Honolulu be repaid.
Stop the madness NOW!!!
Just a tactic to leverage the City Council into removing the cap on the proceeds from extending the half-percent GET. The cost of the rail will exceed $6.7 billion by the time it’s completed. This does not include the operational costs which will bankrupt the City’s coffers.
Anyone recall Boston’s Big Dig? The rail is Honolulu’s Big Trestle.
Let me state first that I am against the rail project. However, if it had to be built, it should have been built from the center out. That way, even if you don’t complete the entire length, you still can use the rail lines in the city core. This whole project is just one big mistake.
Totally agree. A rail rom UH to the stadium would have been useful but more likely, the city planned it this way so they can now claim that we are too far invested to stop.
I thought the reason they started out west was due to acquiring land to serve as a base to house the equipment. Oh well, what a waste going from Kapolei to Middle street.
All the money money money will keep flowing until Caldwell pays back all his campaign donors. Too bad for us the rail will be 1/2 the size and triple the cost.
maybe they can use the rail as a tour vehicle like how they use trolleys…lol. Imagine the view tourist will have of ride from Kapolei to Middle Street.
“Rail officials have said that won’t be enough to finish the project”. How’s about you make it enough?
So much for “On time, on budget”. Time to cut losses. I thought Caldwell told us it is cheaper to build it and tear it down rather than to build it at all. Time to tear it down.
I thought that I saw a puddy cat, too.
Final Cost: $10 Billion
Opening Date: 1/1/2030
Those of us who remember the airport viaduct over Nimitz Hwy and the H-3 construction projects know that is much more realistic projection than what HART is promising. They haven’t even finished 1/3 of the project after four years and still don’t have the final four miles bid yet – and they say the thing will be running in 2021. No way. They might be getting close to Middle Street by then. I hope I live long enough to ride from Kroc Center to Ala Moana McDonalds. Maybe I can get a senior coffee for the 45 minute ride back.
After the coffee comes the restroom.
The rail project might be delayed, but the collection of the rail tax will not be delayed.
Incredible big project process. Designed to fail, for sure. Everyone involved are not sure what comes next. The nation only has to look what is happening here with the rail project to learn what not to do. Incredible.
Yes. Let’s let outside investigation about why Ernie is aeting crazy.
Looks like wiliki works for Caldwell.
Wiliki is Caldwell’s step child.
?????? This has always been a joke. Now, it’s becoming a really bad joke.
I wonder how all of the rail supporters can watch this fiasco unfolding and not realize that this project is out of control? Political and “for profit” interests, rather than transportation needs are driving rail. The debt will surely bankrupt our city. If you think basic city services are already suffering, just wait.
Fire Ernie.SA find out what political interests are driving him. On is he just crazy?
The same can be said about the mayor.
Same can be said about Suchasmallwili.
SA==a different photo of Don Horner, please!!!!
Fire Ernie. Amazing the SA has taken this long to recognize a problem like this.
It didn’t take us long to realize that wiliki works for HART or Caldwell.
You do realize that Martin is elected and cannot just be “fired” right?
Wiliki is Caldwell’s step child, born out of wed lock.
And Keolu works for Ernie.
Tell, you what wiliki. I’m okay with firing Martin, Caldwell, the entire city council, grabby and 95% of the legislature. How about that?
What a big freakin shibai for more money…AGAIN?! Crooks in broad daylight in the hen house. Obvious yet we can do absolutely nothing in the end…and will this ever end??
I don’t see the point of delay. We never had a sound financing plan, so what’s different this time? The supposed cap? What a joke. We all know Grabby, Quirk and the HART mafia will fleece us again to get it done, so the cap will be bypassed eventually. They all just pretend to be responsible without killing the beast eating us alive.
Fire Ernie. He’s the cap man
Fire grabby and Caldwell, they’re the rail men.
Oahu residence going be paying for this thing forever. Cost money to maintain once its done and the way I see the city operating now going be sad. City can’t even mow the grass along the roadway in a timely manner. Glad I don’t live there.
Even if the GET ends as planned in 2027, we’ll still be paying forever for ongoing maintenance and operations. Even worse WHEN ridership projections fail, like all other rail planning. And we still did not address the cost of the power source for the rail.
Take your time, HART. Your foundering gives me more time to “get out of Dodge”, escaping to my new place in Washington state before your agency saps anymore of my taxpayer dollars on this ill conceived, mis-managed, overpriced boondoggle “project”.
Why has no one from government come forward to talk about low income and multi family units being built near rail stations? Hope they do so soon, because imo they absolutely, positively, need to get this part of addressing the housing shortage right. They need public input about what the public want, not want a group of people think the people want. Equally important, let people know about how much the new infrastructure and repairs to existing infrastructure will cost people, and how we will pay for all of it.
Government needs public input about what the people want, not what a group of people deciding what they think the public wants. Where is my coffee?
What sealed it for me that we are dealing with dummies is the fact that all the land in town was not purchased prior to pouring concrete out West. Over the last few years, land prices have increased greatly and the “friends of Kirk” landowners in town will be laughing all the way to the bank when HART pays them triple premium for their land. HART really doesn’t have a choice as all the plans, EIS, etc. have already been laid out. This sucker will go up at least another billion before it’s over. Sneaky City is already reassessing all the land all over Oahu as higher in value so up up up go the property taxes which of course get passed on to renters, so really everyone suffers.
“…if they’re going to take on a contract that doesn’t guarantee they’ll be fully paid”? Guess what, officials–contracts aren’t supposed to guarantee full payment. That’s the whole problem with how contracts are being written in Hawaii. They are supposed to have a schedule of payments for work satisfactorily completed, with penalties for not meeting deadlines. Look what happened with the Health Connector. Please, let’s start writing proper contracts, instead of ones that guarantee payment for work not completed or not competently completed. If the contractors want to be guaranteed payment regardless of the work, then we need new contractors.
Horner and Grabauskas, if your so frustrated with the City Council action, you guys should quit. You can’t just do what you want.
That’s right.
What percentage working on rail are locals vs non-locals (ie: how many will leave Hawaii after the job(s) is done?).
What makes you think the job will ever be done???
There should be a contest to write a caption for the picture of Horner at the top of the article. Check out the expression on his face.
Agree. “all these dumb suckers on Oahu who supported Caldwell are starting to wise up”
Is the current and future economic growth enough to make all of what we are trying to do sustainable?
Do we need to take a look at the current tourism model and start doing some innovative thinking and planning now? Imho, it needs to change.
Are we putting the cart before the horse when envisioning TOD?
Can someone in government tell the public what the envisioned TOD is going to cost taxpayers and how they plan to fund it?
Have we given enough consideration for TOD as to what people will want? And again, is it sustainable? Do we have the resources to do what supporters of TOD envision?
Duh…who would have known?
disgusting. utterly disgusting!
Nasty, too.
Are there constitutional and legal issues with regard to implementation of TOD, land usage?
Our Kapuna elderly who are paying rail tax now, would like to be able to ride it before they take the final rail to heaven.
When you consider the vision for rail, it would make absolutely no sense for it to stop at Middle Street. It would make the most sense to build it to UH. But looks like the projected costs will make that extremely difficult, if not impossible. In addition, the TOD vision will take at least another generation before we begin to see whether it was the right thing to do, or not.
Hope they have built in something to make rail at least somewhat future proof. But it doesn’t appear to be the case.
So, since it looks like this project will not stop until it makes it to Ala Moana, let us hope that the right decisions are made in the best interests for the future of our children.
Or, can our lawmakers offer any alternatives at this point in time? Honestly, think we all know the answer to that. What is troubling, with all the negative press, imho, is why they have not yet begun to try and educate the public about their vision for TOD.