The City Council is urging rail officials to curb costs and limit change orders on the $5.27 billion project.

The Council’s Executive Matters and Legal Affairs Committee on Tuesday tentatively approved a resolution asking the city to review the terms of its contracts with builders to see if changes need to be made to prevent change orders or budget overruns.

The resolution also instructs the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation to hold off issuing any authorization for new construction work until after the city has gained federal funding for the 20-mile project.

The Council action comes in the wake of a report in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the city expects to spend tens of millions of dollars in rail cash reserves to cover budget overruns or other unexpected costs related to the project’s construction.

Last year the city reported it had "contingency" funds of more than $865 million to cover unexpected or unbudgeted costs for the project.

That contingency budget dropped to about $835 million after the city drew funds to cover change orders and other unbudgeted expenses, and the city expects to tap an additional $58 million for undisclosed costs in the months ahead, according to HART.

That additional spending would drop the contingency reserve to $776.9 million.

Executive Matters Committee Chairman Romy Cachola said residents are angry that the city has had change orders and budget overruns when construction has barely started.

He said he wants to be sure the city does not "treat billions of dollars like pennies."

Cachola contends that project consultants InfraConsult LLC and Parsons Brinckerhoff gave bad advice that led the city to issue a 2009 notice to proceed to construction contractor Kiewit Infrastructure West Co.

Delays in completion of the final environmental impact statement later stalled progress on the project, and led Kiewit to file for millions of dollars in damages.

Wes Mott, procurement and contracts officer with InfraConsult, said the city was following a master schedule that indicated when tasks needed to be accomplished and approvals were to be issued.

The situation later changed when former Gov. Linda Lingle refused to approve the rail EIS, a development that caused a series of delays.