Despite budget constraints, some at the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation expressed their desire this week to see the rail project extended to its original end point of Ala Moana Center — and, if future funding were to become available, see the line move closer to the campus at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Originally, the cash-strapped transit project saw construction of a 20.2-mile, 21-station route from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center with a then-projected budget of nearly $13 billion. But in 2022, Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced a scaled-back version: an 18.75-mile, 19-station route costing $9.8 billion to build.
Under the new plan, the line will end rail construction at Halekauwila and South streets.
At HART’s board of directors meeting Thursday, Nate Meddings, the rail project’s director, said a pending request for proposals for the Civic Center Station’s guideway contract gained “a lot of interest” from a range of local and mainland rail industry representatives and contractors at a recent event held on Hawaii island. He expected more interest at HART’s upcoming contractors’ event — called Industry Day — to be held in Honolulu on Feb. 28.
For her part, though, board Chair Colleen Hanabusa said the rail project’s original full funding grant agreement — which helps pay for major rapid transit projects nationwide through the Federal Transit Administration — was not amended and still considered the rail’s terminus at Ala Moana Center.
“We expect to get it amended, but we don’t know when. And then we have the issue of how we’re going to proceed after that,” Hanabusa said. “So how are you going to handle that?”
In response, Meddings said the project has the “financial capacity” to get to the Civic Center but that not having a “modified FFGA (full funding grant agreement) still provides a minimal risk” in terms of going beyond the Civic Center Station in the future. “We do want to put out an option to go to Ala Moana in some form or fashion,” he added. “That allows us to understand exactly how much it will cost to get to Ala Moana, and that will help us with those projections.”
He noted such a plan allows a potential contractor to offer some “innovation” to push the line farther east. However, Meddings stressed that the current scope of the work is to get the line as far as the Civic Center.
To that, Hanabusa said the “intent” is to have the line go to Ala Moana until a new federal transit agreement is amended, “because we still have to comply with the existing FFGA,” she added.
Meddings replied that the plan’s “guaranteed scope is to Civic Center with an option somehow of getting to Ala Moana.”
Later, board member Robert Yu wished to see another option for the line: what he called an “offramp” for rail to go from Ala Moana Center to UH.
“So is that something you would put in?” Yu asked.
Meddings said a spur could be included in the plan. “It’s very minimal cost to put in a spur,” he said. “That allows that alignment, and we are definitely going to facilitate that and absolutely not preclude it.” Meddings added that HART “won’t spend a bunch of money on it, but if there’s a way to set up special track work,” then they’d attempt to incorporate that into a future plan.
Yu replied that not having that spur option incorporated now might mean having to shut down the rail line to accommodate its construction, if future funding for a UH station became available.
Other HART updates were announced at the meeting.
Lori Kahikina, the transit agency’s executive director and CEO, said HART still awaits a pending order of “post post-tension” rebar to repair T-shaped supports — known as hammerheads — atop rail columns used to support future rail stations. In late 2018, cracks were first discovered in the concrete forms of 21 hammerhead supports. Currently, structural flaws on all 21 hammerheads are being resolved via the use of epoxy coatings to help keep out moisture and reduce further cracking.
Kahikina said the rebar — now being manufactured on the mainland — is expected to arrive in about a month. Once received, the retrofit work will begin and likely last through the end of May, she added.
HART tentatively expects the first trains to run on the line — from the East Kapolei Station to Aloha Stadium — as early as June.
Meanwhile, the transit agency will host a hybrid in-person and virtual community meeting at noon Thursday at 1099 Alakea St., Suite 150. The meeting will have HART’s contractor, Nan Inc., offer updates on rail work being done along the Dillingham Boulevard/Kamehameha Highway corridor, between Middle and Kaaahi streets.
For more information, visit honolulutransit.org.
Correction: The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation is awaiting rebar, or what it calls “post post-tension,” to repair T-shaped supports known as hammerheads along the rail line. An earlier version of this story inaccurately referred to the material as concrete slabs. Also, the spelling of the HART project director's has been corrected.
