Council vote lets rail work resume

Construction workers will be back in the fields of East Kapolei erecting concrete columns for the city’s $5.26 billion rail project come Monday after the City Council’s approval Wednesday of two permits that allow for work to restart after more than a year of delays.

Dan Grabauskas, executive director of the Hono­lulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, looked noticeably relieved as he spoke to reporters after Wednesday’s Council meeting.

“We’re going to be back at work in a couple of places simultaneously,” Grabauskas said. Besides continuing work on the columns, regrading will take place at HART’s maintenance and storage facility in Waipahu and utility relocation measures will restart through the most western part of the project, he said.

Wednesday’s approval of Resolution 13-208 gives HART a special management area use permit and shoreline setback variance that allows the project to resume.

Simultaneously, Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., HART’s main construction contractor, was given the OK for more than a dozen permits to do a variety of work including grading, trenching and stockpiling by the Department of Planning and Permitting this week, HART officials said.

The first step: Construction of up to 422 columns in the 10-mile, first half of the alignment that runs from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium, HART officials said

A lawsuit halted the project on Aug. 27, 2012. The State Historic Preservation Division’s Aug. 29 approval of archaeological reports tied to the HART project put into motion the steps for restarting the project.

The Hawaii Supreme Court had mandated that the reports be approved before the project could proceed.

Grabauskas told Council members that the city is losing at least $200,000 each day that project construction is halted. He estimated that between $30 million and $35 million has been lost due to the delays.

Council Zoning Chairman Ikaika Anderson said his committee agreed to HART’s request to hold a special meeting on Monday for the sole purpose of advancing Resolution 13-208. Waiting until the committee’s regularly scheduled meeting

at the end of the month would have cost taxpayers an additional $3 million, he said.

Additionally, he said, “every day of delay, the families of our working brothers and sisters continue to suffer financial hardship.”

A string of business and labor organizations testified in favor of the resolution, echoing Anderson’s remarks. Rail’s most prominent critics stayed away from the meeting.

Rail critic Cliff Slater, whose honolulutraffic.com group is challenging the case at the federal level, told the Star-Advertiser earlier this week that the cost involved with halting construction and tearing down its structures, should his group succeed, would far exceed the savings from restarting the project now.

Some Council members, however, continued to voice concerns about the need for more information and a lack of specifics when it comes to the project’s costs.

While Resolution 13-208 was approved 9-0, members Joey Manahan and Ann Kobayashi voted with reservations.

Manahan said he appreciated the argument for resuming construction immediately, but argues HART has yet to give a thorough presentation to the Council showing specific details.

Manahan noted that the project is still the subject of a case before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which could ultimately kill the project.

Despite Grabauskas’ confidence that HART would receive a favorable decision from the court, “I’m not convinced there is a cost savings without HART considering the possibility of a negative outcome from the courts and they should be able to quantify that,” Manahan said. “Without a real cost analysis, for me

I think this is kind of like a roll of the dice, a crapshoot as far as saving money.”

Council Transportation Chairman Breene Harimoto said the resolution dealt specifically with a special management area use permit and a shoreline setback variance dealing with property primarily in his Aiea-Waipahu district, and that he has not heard concerns from constituents.

The Council also approved Resolution 13-203, which allows the city and HART to enter into an agreement with the state Department of Transportation clearing the way for the project to be built on state property along the entire 20-mile route.

The agreement allows the city to take possession of state highways such as Farrington and Kamehameha highways, make the improvements needed for the project, and then return the property to the state in “at least as good if not better condition” when construction is done, Grabauskas said.