The Honolulu rail project has generated 508 jobs directly related to building the multibillion-dollar system so far this year, including 243 construction-related jobs, according to estimates provided by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation.

That is far short of the annual average of 4,200 construction-related and engineering jobs the city had estimated would be created at the height of rail construction, but HART Executive Director Daniel Grabauskas said that’s because the construction phase for rail is just getting started.

The U.S. Department of Transportation on April 20 authorized Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. to begin drilling shafts for foundations for the first section of guideway, marking the beginning of heavy construction for the $5.27 billion project.

"Given the fact that construction of the above-ground portion began only a couple of days ago, I’m not surprised to see that figure," Grabauskas told the Hono-lulu City Council during a discussion of the job count last week. "It will steadily climb now as we get to full construction on the first two segments, and begin later the construction of the later segments."

The rail employment count provided to the Council includes jobs created by subcontractors working on the rail project for Kiewit, according to a HART spokeswoman.

Lance Wilhelm, senior vice president of Kiewit, told HART officials recently that 139 subcontractors were engaged as of March 1 in work related to the first two segments of the elevated rail guideway and the rail maintenance and storage facility near Leeward Community College.

Kiewit and the Kiewit/Kobayashi Joint Venture have contracts for more than $1.08 billion to build the first 10 miles of rail guideway and the 43-acre train car maintenance and storage facility.

So far the city has given Kiewit the go-ahead to proceed with design work on those facilities as well as $185 million worth of construction activities.

The employment created by the rail project so far includes 90 jobs that are city positions with HART, and 27 positions with rail consultant InfraConsult LLC. InfraConsult has a three-year, $33.4 million contract to provide support services to the city.

That job count does not include five subcontractors that are working with InfraConsult on the project, a city spokeswoman said.

Another 135 rail-related jobs are with PB Americas Inc., a subsidiary of Parsons Brinckerhoff Inc. Some of those jobs are held by employees of subcontractors that work with PB Americas on the project, according to the spokeswoman.

PB Americas contracted with the city for $168.7 million in 2007 to do preliminary engineering and prepare the environmental impact statement for the city, and won a second contract in 2011 for $300 million for planning and construction management.

The environmental impact statement prepared for the rail project in 2010 predicted that peak construction for rail would be in 2013, when the project was expected to generate 17,270 direct, indirect and "induced" jobs.

With the construction delays of recent years, the city now believes peak employment from the rail project will be in 2014.

Direct jobs are jobs in the heavy civil engineering and construction sector, and indirect jobs are jobs created in other sectors as a result of construction, such as food service jobs to cater to employees on the project. Induced jobs are positions that result from the overall expansion of the regional economy due to the project.

The city has estimated an average of about 10,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs would be created by rail per year.

One factor that will affect the annual job count going forward is the construction schedule. The schedule for rail development has been compressed because construction was delayed by more than a year, while the completion date for the rail project has been held at 2019.

That means the annual job count will likely be higher than was projected in the EIS because the same spending on rail is being spread over fewer years during the compressed construction schedule, according to a city spokeswoman.

Kiewit, which is scheduled to complete all three of its contracts by the end of 2015, projects it will create 1,650 jobs during the 31⁄2 years of construction. A spokeswoman for Kiewit was unable to say whether each job represents the employment of one person for one year.

The planned 20-mile elevated rail line will extend from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center.