Highway cash can aid city’s rail, says politician

U.S. Rep. Mark Takai is touting a new proposal that he says could help the state reduce its more than $600 million backlog in federal highway projects and, at the same time, help ease the Honolulu rail project’s budget problems.

However, the idea could face stiff scrutiny and possibly resistance from key local and federal transportation officials. The state Department of Transportation’s deputy director for highways has already expressed reservations about the proposal.

Takai met with reporters Monday at the bustling corner of Acacia Road and Kamehameha Highway in Pearl City — an area that’s under siege by rail construction — to propose that crews use $100 million from the federal Highway Trust Fund to rebuild Kamehameha and Farrington highways once the bulk of the rail work ends there.

Currently, it’s up to the city’s cash-strapped rail project to rebuild those crumbling roads once it’s finished building there, Takai said. T aking the burden off rail and using federal money for that work instead would be a "win-win," he added.

The move would help the state to further chip away at the backlog of federal highway dollars that it needs to spend, Takai said. That backlog, caused by delayed payments, unnecessary steps and a lack of staff expertise, stands at $630 million, according to state officials. Gov. David Ige has said that the state already has lost out on federal highway funding because of the backlog. It’s an issue that’s been years in the making.

At the same time, using federal highway dollars for the highway reconstruction would allow the rail project to save as much as $100 million, Takai said, at a time when it needs all the savings it can find.

The public transit project faces as much as a $910 million shortfall, and the Honolulu City Council is poised to take a final vote in the next year whether to approve a five-year rail tax extension.

Takai sent a letter Thursday to Gregory Nadeau, acting administrator for the Federal Highway Administration, asking him to consider working with the state DOT to make the Farrington and Kamehameha highways reconstruction projects eligible for federal assistance. Takai said he expects an official response in the coming weeks.

A spokesman for the FHWA said Monday that the agency can’t speculate on Takai’s suggestion until it sees a formal proposal from the state DOT first.

Meanwhile, Ed Sniffen, the state DOT’s deputy director for highways, said in an emailed statement Monday that his agency hasn’t agreed to what Takai proposes. Even with the federal surplus, Sniffen wrote, there’s still a gap in the "billions" of dollars between what the state highway system needs to stay properly maintained and what’s available.

"Therefore, the state is not considering any funding to (the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation) that funds rail," Sniffen wrote. "HDOT is only looking at funding state highway improvements."

It wasn’t clear whether Sniffen considered the Kamehameha and Farrington highways reconstruction to be exclusively part of the rail project. A DOT spokesman was unavailable for clarification late Monday.

Takai said Monday that local commuters have been waiting for those roadways to be rebuilt for more than a decade, before the rail project started.

"We have the money. It is sorely needed, and it’s an opportunity to help everybody," he said.

Star-Advertiser reporter Kevin Dayton contributed to this report.