The rail project’s interim boss apologized to several board members Thursday for not alerting them that the $11 billion project’s deficit has ballooned to $3 billion, but promised more details ahead of next week’s full board meeting.

Lori Kahikina, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation’s interim CEO and executive director, told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser’s Spotlight Hawaii online video program Wednesday that the deficit stood at $3 billion and there is no easy way to plug the shortfall.

Board members knew that bids to build the final segment of the 20-mile, 21-station project came in more than $1 billion over HART’s $1.4 billion budget.

But the majority had never heard the $3 billion figure.

On Thursday, Kahikina apologized to members of the HART board’s Project Oversight Committee after she read in the Star-­Advertiser that the $3 billion figure caught board members by surprise.

Kahikina said she notified the board chairman and vice chairman of the preliminary numbers, but had not alerted the others.

“I need to apologize to the other board members,” Kahikina said. “I did not mean to keep anyone in the dark.”

The estimates came out “late Thursday night,” she said. “Till today we have not vetted it. … That was not my intention, to keep any board members in the dark. It was just bad timing. But we will present it and have it fully vetted by the next board meeting,” scheduled for Thursday.

Committee Chairman Glenn Nohara closed the committee meeting by thanking Kahikina, who wants the permanent job of running HART.

“Thank you, Lori,” Nohara said. “I appreciate your transparency and willingness to dig in and get to the true numbers, because I think both the board and the public need to regain the confidence that what we are presenting is a lot more accurate than what we have been presenting in the past. So thank you very much for that effort.”