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The federal government has granted a key approval that will allow the city to immediately begin up to $184.7 million in construction and other activities on the city’s rail project, including erecting the first sections of raised guideway from East Kapolei to Pearl Highlands.
The approval announced Monday by U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye allows the city to move forward with construction before the federal government has actually committed to contributing its proposed $1.55 billion share of funding for the 20-mile rail project. The city hopes to obtain a final commitment for federal assistance by October.
"We have debated and discussed a rail transit plan for Oahu for decades, and I am very pleased that the administration is allowing the city to proceed with construction," Inouye said in a written statement. "Too many hard working families on the West side of the island spend too much of their time stuck in traffic. This project offers an alternative to driving and helps lessen our dependence on imported fossil fuels."
Inouye also said construction of the rail line will create jobs.
The entire 20-mile rail line will extend from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center and will cost an estimated $5.27 billion. Most of that funding will come from a half-percent excise tax surcharge levied on Oahu residents and visitors.
Rail opponents warned last year they likely would file for a preliminary injunction if the city proceeded with heavy construction. But further legal analysis suggests the upcoming work the city is planning on West Oahu agricultural lands would not legally justify a preliminary injunction, longtime opponent Cliff Slater said in a statement Monday after the announcement.
Slater said the city indicated it would "replace and repair" anything it constructs during this phase of work if the city later loses in court. That means actions taken by the city technically do not amount to "irreparable harm" to the environment under federal law, and therefore would not justify an injunction, Slater said.
Still, Slater said, he believes the rail opponents will eventually prevail in court and stop the project.
Slater and other rail opponents, including former Gov. Ben Cayetano and former state Democratic Party Chairman Walter Heen, have sued to try to block construction, arguing the city needs to reconsider basic issues such as the route for the rail project and the steel-wheel-on-steel-rail technology selected by the city.
The federal approval for new construction work came in the form of a "letter of no prejudice" from the Federal Transit Administration that authorizes the city to proceed with building the rail system, but does not obligate the federal government to help pay for that construction.
Slater said the FTA letter for the Honolulu project "merely continues the city’s ability to risk city taxpayer dollars. There is still no guarantee that there will be any federal dollars.
"As taxpayers we find it unfortunate that the city intends to risk spending $185 million and similar millions of dollars to repair and replace what they construct, but under the law that is a money problem and not an environmental problem," Slater said.
Assuming the rail project wins final approval from the FTA this fall, the federal government can reimburse the city later for some or all of the $184.7 million in construction activities that were authorized by the letter.
The city requested the letter of no prejudice in December, arguing it needed permission in January to proceed with construction in February. If the FTA did not issue the letter to allow construction to move forward this month, the city warned, each additional month of delay would increase the cost of the rail project by more than $9 million.
That extra cost represented the cost to contractors who had mobilized their crews but were unable to work, and increases in the cost of materials such as concrete because of the delays, according to the city’s request to the FTA.
The city has already said it will agree to a change order of at least $15 million because of delays in construction on the West Oahu/Farrington Highway Guideway, which will extend 6.5 miles from East Kapolei to Pearl Highlands.
That contract was awarded in 2009 for nearly $483 million, but change orders have increased the contract amount to nearly $502 million, mostly because of construction delays.
The federal letter of no prejudice announced Monday allows heavy construction to finally begin on that West Oahu/Farrington Highway section of the guideway. That will include putting up support columns about 125 feet apart and erecting a 30-foot-wide concrete channel on top of those columns to support the overhead train tracks.
The West Oahu segment of overhead guideway will begin near the Kroc Center Hawaii, loop past the University of Hawaii West Oahu campus and then head east toward Waipahu.
The most visible construction in that segment will involve building support columns and the guideway on top of them in the center median along Farrington Highway.
The letter also gives the city authority to begin building support columns along Kamehameha Highway from Pearl Highlands to Aloha Stadium. That work was awarded last year to Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. under a separate $372 million contract.
Crews will also be allowed under the FTA letter to begin grading and other site work on the rail maintenance and storage facility planned for an area makai of Farrington Highway between Leeward Community College and Waipahu High School.
The maintenance and storage facility will be built under a $195 million contract with Kiewit-Kobayashi Joint Venture, and work is supposed to begin next month.
The letter also clears the city to continue design work and begin construction of train stations planned at Leeward Community College and on Farrington Highway at West Loch and Waipahu.
The FTA regularly clears municipalities to begin construction on rail projects before the federal government has fully committed to funding through a Full Funding Grant Agreement.
Last year the FTA approved a similar letter of no prejudice to allow almost $48 million in early construction and other activities related to the Draper Light Rail Transit Project in Salt Lake City, and issued two similar letters allowing about $85 million in construction work for the North Corridor Light Rail Transit Project in Houston.
The FTA also issued similar letters in recent years allowing construction work to begin in Phoenix, Denver and St. Paul, Minn., according to FTA records and rail officials in those cities.
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