The speed at which tens of millions of dollars are flying out of the city’s contingency fund for the $5.27 billion rail system is another red flag about the sloppy management of this massive project.

According to the Star-Advertiser’s Kevin Dayton, the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation has already tapped $30 million of the $865 million contingency fund, mainly to pay for construction change orders.

And the city expects to use another $58 million for undisclosed costs in the coming months, reducing the fund to $776.9 million.

The fast drawdown when construction at this point consists of a single pillar in a vacant field in West Oahu bodes ill for cost containment as the 20-mile line advances into more densely populated and potentially troublesome segments.

HART CEO Daniel Grabauskas said it’s "not unusual," but that’s becoming the standard answer to any concern about questionable expenses, from demands for a $450 million line of credit that officials claim isn’t really needed to their employment of some 20 public relations consultants to hard-sell the project to the public.

The first concern is the size of the contingency fund, which is essentially a slush fund for rail officials to tap to cover missteps and loose calculations.

Throw in the 10 percent of the rail excise tax the state is siphoning off for its own use, and a fourth of rail funding is in slush.

For a big construction project in the real world, managers would be expected to present a budget that precisely reflects what they expect the job to cost.

They’d have to justify every penny of additional costs, and if they were to ask for too many extra pennies, their continued employment would be in jeopardy.

The big contingency fund allows rail officials to sweep those additional pennies under the rug and keep claiming they’re on budget.

The budgeting structure has encouraged contractors to come in with low initial bids to make the politicians look good, comfortably knowing there’s that big slush fund to pay them change orders out the back door.

That’s the process playing out now, eating up the "savings" the politicians claimed to have gained by signing construction and rail car contracts long before they were ready to build anything.

And it’s enabled them to start building in empty fields without bothering to first scope out the true cost of burial sites and other likely obstacles as construction nears the city center.

Rail is losing support not because of public doubt about the value of a good mass transit system, but because an apparent majority now doubts the city’s ability to build a good system honestly and competently.

It remains discouraging that rail advocates respond with more heavy-handed PR instead of more signs of sound management.

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Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com or blog.volcanicash.net.