The federal District Court in Hawaii took renewed aim this week at the planned route for the city’s rail line, saying it fails to meet the $5.26 billion project’s stated purpose by ending at Ala Moana Center — a shopping mall — instead of the University of Hawaii’s Manoa campus.
In a July 8 letter on behalf of the court, Chief U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway urged local and federal transit officials, including Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Executive Director Dan Grabauskas, to reconsider a tunnel path under Beretania Street as a "more prudent and feasible route" near the end of the planned 20-mile rail system.
Current plans are for the route to go down Halekauwila Street in Kakaako.
"The project doesn’t go anywhere near the UH-Manoa campus" and the nearly 20,500 students who study there, Mollway wrote to Grabauskas and Ted Matley, a Federal Transit Administration official. "Instead, it goes to the Ala Moana Shopping Center!"
Mollway and other U.S. District Court judges in Hawaii recused themselves from presiding over a federal lawsuit against the rail project. They oppose the rail route’s passing by the court building on Halekauwila, saying the proximity poses a security risk.
Rail transit officials released a new draft report last month on the Beretania option. It concluded that tunneling under the street would be "feasible" but still too costly an alternative when compared with using Halekauwila. Mollway’s letter earlier this week was part of an continuing public-comment process on that report.
On Thursday she said she was surprised her remarks drew such attention.
"This is really kind of a follow-up to concerns that we have expressed" on security, Mollway said. "This was in response to the invitation for public comment" and consistent with the District Court judges’ prior stated concerns.
Nonetheless, plaintiffs in the federal suit to overturn the rail project on Thursday called the letter significant, unprecedented and "astonishing" as they gear up for an Aug. 15 hearing before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
"I’ve been a lawyer since 1971. I’ve never heard anything like this," former Gov. Ben Cayetano said in a briefing with reporters Thursday. "We were all taken by surprise. The fact that all these judges have come out, collectively, speaks volumes over the credibility of this project. … We hope that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reads that letter, too."
Cayetano and other opponents, including University of Hawaii law professor Randy Roth and Cliff Slater, said they will try to introduce the letter before the 9th Circuit.
Mollway, however, said the District Court isn’t trying to affect the lawsuit or send a message to the 9th Circuit. As recused judges, "we are not speaking in a judicial decision-making role. We are speaking in an administrative role."
Mollway added that the court has had behind-the-scenes talks with city officials in recent years on the security concerns. Those correspondences haven’t been made public, she said, due to their sensitive nature about security.
"I don’t want to endanger anyone," Mollway said.
In a statement Thursday, HART Deputy Director Brennan Morioka reiterated the semiautonomous government agency’s invitation for the public to weigh in on its draft supplemental environmental impact statement on Beretania and other findings. The public-comment period ends July 22, and all comments received through then "will be given full consideration, including Judge Mollway’s," Morioka said.
The draft statement found it would cost nearly $1 billion more and add two years of construction to tunnel under Beretania to UH-Manoa.
Nonetheless, Mollway argued that might still be the best approach if the rail system is ever to reach the university campus.
"There could be a major cost-saving in implementing the Beretania Tunnel Alternative now rather than pursuing a two-stage development involving initial construction of the rail route to the Ala Moana Shopping Center and later extension to UH-Manoa," she wrote. "In fact, given the economy, sequestration, the loss of Senator (Daniel) Inouye’s influence, and other intervening factors, it is realistic to question whether the extension to UH-Manoa will ever be built."
The Beretania Street alternative calls for a 5,980-foot tunnel under Aala Park and downtown, resurfacing past Punchbowl Street, then doglegging over to King Street near the Alapai Transit Center. It would then follow King Street to University Avenue, then head mauka.
Judge Susan Oki Mollway’s letter to HART and federal transit officials
