Despite Steve Dang’s misgivings (“HART’s P3 proposal is just pie in the sky,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, Sept. 18), the city and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation are moving toward a public-private partnership (P3) for the rail project, and the interest expressed by the international P3 community is encouraging.

Back in February, HART and the city hosted an industry forum and invited some of the key international P3 firms to Honolulu for a two-day conference. More than 70 companies participated, including those from Japan, Spain, the U.K., Canada and Australia. Several of them asked for one-on-one meetings with HART staff. Many have stayed in touch and have expressed interest in working on the HART project.

Governments across the country are increasingly turning to public-private partnerships to implement large public infrastructure projects because of the significantly higher likelihood of meeting cost and schedule objectives under P3 models compared with projects owned, managed and financed by government. P3s can address some of the key structural and operational reasons why traditional project delivery so often fails. HART and the city look forward to teaming up with a private- sector partner to deliver and operate the rail project.

Bill Brennan

Spokesman, Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation

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