Honolulu mayoral candidate Kirk Caldwell is calling for a "critical last look" at the downtown and Kakaako portions of the city rail project, including possible last-minute design revisions to answer residents’ concerns about the elevated rail guideway.
Caldwell said his proposal for additional review and possible redesign of some features won’t add to the cost of the $5.27 billion rail project and will not delay the project.
"I think by doing it now you’re going to save costs and you’re going to save time, particularly if we’re going to change what we’re doing, and I think we need to do that, we need to engage the downtown community," Caldwell said Tuesday at a news conference. "We need to see if we can’t design this thing better and do rail better."
Caldwell suggested steps such as relocating some support columns so the rail guideway has less effect on downtown mauka-to-makai view planes, and reducing the profile of the guideway by making it slimmer from top to bottom.
He said the effort should include a public review to vet community concerns about the downtown guideway and station designs, and a "peer review" of the rail plan by architects and engineers who were not involved in developing the current design.
Caldwell also took the opportunity to blame Mayor Peter Carlisle for a slide in the popularity of the rail project in recent public opinion polls.
Caldwell said the project was popular when Caldwell served as acting Honolulu mayor in 2010, "so what has changed?"
"I think what has changed is the lack of engagement with the public. The mayor is not discussing the project. The mayor is kind of just letting things operate on automatic pilot, and as a result it’s moved backward," Caldwell said of Carlisle. "It has not been hands-on. It has not been answering the questions. We have not been transparent. He has not gone out to the community and addressed the kind of concerns I have been talking about today."
Carlisle responded that Caldwell "is acting like a candidate whose campaign is falling behind or is stuck."
Carlisle said that since he took office the rail environmental impact statement was approved, and the city broke ground on the rail project. The Federal Transit Administration also approved the Honolulu project to enter the final design phase, and the FTA issued letters allowing the city to begin construction of the rail system support columns and guideways, Carlisle said.
"None of these things occurred during the short time candidate Caldwell worked for the City and County of Honolulu," Carlisle said.
The rail project is already more than a year behind schedule, mostly because of delays in obtaining final approval of the 2010 environmental impact statement.
