A contractor may soon be able to move forward with construction of a key support facility needed to build the $5.27 billion Honolulu rail project, but rail opponents say the plans for the "precast" facility could be the basis for new court challenges.
At issue is a 34-acre site where contractor Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. plans to fabricate concrete sections of the raised 30-foot-wide guideway that will be erected on top of columns along the 20-mile rail route. The train will travel along the elevated guideway, allowing it to avoid city traffic.
Establishing the precast facility has proved difficult. During the past two years, Kiewit and city officials considered at least five possible precast sites before finally settling on the current spot on vacant land in Campbell Industrial Park.
The delays in picking the site prompted the Federal Transit Adminstration in February to withhold permission for the city to begin nearly $22 million worth of work related to the precast facility — work that is essential to keep the rail project on track.
Last month the city compiled an environmental review of the new site that was accepted by the FTA, and now the city is asking the FTA to allow Kiewit to construct the precast yard and begin producing sections of guideway.
"The FTA approval of the environmental review on the precast yard is good news and in line with what we expected," said Toru Hamayasu, acting executive director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation. "This latest federal approval keeps the project moving forward so that we can deliver a safe, reliable and efficient transit system that will provide residents with an alternative to sitting in traffic congestion."
The precast yard has also drawn the attention of rail opponents, who have filed a formal demand for public records with the FTA to learn more about the yard.
The Campbell Industrial Park site was never mentioned in the environmental impact statement for the Honolulu rail project or the FTA record of decision approving the impact statement, and the precast facility will be substantial.
According to city records, it would operate 24 hours a day and employ about 70 workers.
The facility would produce 30-foot-wide sections of rail guideway that would then be trucked to the construction site and assembled on top of the support columns.
Kiewit plans to put up about 20,000 square feet of temporary buildings on the site as well as an overhead bridge crane system.
The facility would include a concrete batch plant, 11 segment casting beds, three acres of material storage areas and a 3-acre site for rebar preparation. It will also have room to store up to 900 segments of guideway, according to the city environmental review of the project.
The vacant, 34-acre site along Kalaeloa Boulevard is zoned for heavy industrial uses.
Once the rail project is finished, Kiewit plans to remove all buildings and equipment from the site "unless otherwise negotiated with the landowner," according to the city report.
City officials said they didn’t include the precast facility in the EIS because "it was not reasonably foreseeable as to whether one would be needed for the Project; or if one was required, where it would be located," according to a 2010 city memo to the FTA on the subject.
The exclusion of the precast facility from the EIS sparked concern within the FTA. Federal officials noted the entire project, including any precast yards, should have been considered in the EIS "to avoid potential issues of ‘segmentation’" of the rail project during the environmental review process, according to internal FTA emails.
Federal agencies such as the FTA are prohibited from "segmenting" projects during environmental reviews, meaning the agencies may not break projects down into smaller components to make the environmental impacts of the overall projects appear less significant. The city is seeking $1.55 billion in federal finding for the project, which makes it subject to federal regulations.
FTA officials included a letter from the city identifying a precast facility site in the record of decision by the FTA, but the precast site location included in the record of decision was not the site that Kiewit finally selected, according to federal records.
Randy Roth, a University of Hawaii law professor and part of a group of rail opponents who are suing to block construction of the rail project, said he thinks the precast yard is indeed an example of "segmentation" during the rail environmental process.
"In emails recently made available in the federal lawsuit, FTA repeatedly warned the City of the litigation risk inherent in segmentation," Roth said in an emailed statement. "I believe segmentation in the context of this rail project violates state and federal environmental laws."
The federal lawsuit filed by Roth, former Gov. Ben Cayetano and others alleges the environmental impact statement for the rail project violates federal environmental law in a variety of ways including segmentation. The suit asks the court to halt construction and require a supplemental EIS.
Roth said it is also "conceivable" that the handling of the precast yard could form the basis for a new lawsuit in state court.
Kiewit initially planned to fabricate the rail segments in an existing precast yard at another site in Campbell Industrial Park, and Kiewit independently initiated a state environmental assessment of that site in 2010 to prepare for the precast yard.
However, the city instructed Kiewit to discontinue the state environmental assessment, which was never completed, according to federal records.
Last month the city asked the FTA to finally put concerns about the precast yard to rest and allow Kiewit to begin construction on the facility.
HART told the FTA in a March 8 letter that HART had determined the precast yard would have no environmental impacts that are significantly different from those described in the EIS, and therefore the precast facility will not require a supplemental EIS.
HART also concluded the selection of the new site for the precast yard will not cause any new impacts under state law, according to the letter.
On March 20 the FTA wrote back that "FTA has determined that no additional environmental review is required at this time." A city request to the FTA to allow Kiewit to move ahead with the $21.8 million in work associated with the precast yard is pending.
"The FTA’s approval of the environmental review is the one of the last pieces of the puzzle for Kiewit to begin precast work for the West Oahu Farrington Highway Guideway," said Lance Wilhelm, senior vice president and area manager for Kiewit Building Group. "With this approval Kiewit will begin looking at the necessary steps to set up the precast yard and begin production."
Kiewit has $874 million in contracts with the city to build the first two sections of the rail guideway from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium, and is part of a joint venture that has another, $195 million contract to build a rail car maintenance and storage facility.
