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DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARADVERTISER.COM
Dan Grabauskas, executive director of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, on Thursday pointed out the construction site of the rail system’s maintenance and storage facility, which is located next to Leeward Community College in Pearl City.
The chief executive officer for the budget-busting rail project said the biggest cost savings that can be realized at this stage lies in the way the coming station contracts are structured and packaged.
HART has compiled a list of line items to be struck from the job roster on the stations. The projected savings totals $41 million; the top two spots on the list, for $11 million, stem from the shift to "design-build" contracts that are smaller to draw more competition.
There are 166 items on the list. Here are just a few:
» $5 million — Replacing the exposed aggregate finish concrete to a standard broom finish in most areas.
» $3 million — Transfer platform box girder construction to the guideway contract (station and guideway construction has been combined in the same design-build contracts).
» $2 million — Minimize median landscaping (using low-upkeep "hardscaping" is seen as a way to save more throughout the system).
» $1-3 million — Minimizing landscaping at stations.
» $1.4 million — Substitute coated galvanized steel balustrades (railings) for the planned stainless steel balustrades, possibly at all stations.
» $1 million — Eliminate makai entrance and concourse at the Waipahu station (similar changes are proposed at other stations).
» $350,000 — Substitute white uplighting at station platform canopies for the original colored uplighting.
