Hanabusa harangues rail officials

Rail officials took withering criticism from their board chairwoman Monday for locking in the price to build the project’s next 5.2-mile stretch before resolving potentially costly conflicts with Hawaiian Electric Co.

Last month Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Executive Director Dan Grabauskas touted the $875 million contract award to joint venture Shimmick/Traylor/Granite to build the rail section from Aloha Stadium to Middle Street. HART officials had managed to reduce the firm’s original offer by some $35 million after negotiating a best-and-final offer, they reported. The final price came in on the high end of the rail agency’s estimates from more than a year ago.

At Monday’s board meeting, however, it was pointed out that the rail agency and HECO still haven’t agreed on how much progress the Shimmick/Traylor/Granite crews will have to make relocating certain overhead high-voltage power lines before they can start to build rail’s elevated guideway there.

The timing of that utility work could further delay rail’s construction schedule and potentially drive up the cost of that contract, board Chairwoman Colleen Hana­busa said.

She grilled rail officials on why they didn’t address such a potentially “expensive item” before issuing the latest, major construction contract.

“I’m stunned,” Hanabusa said, speaking before Grabauskas, Deputy Executive Director Brennon Morioka and other rail staff. “HART knew ahead of time. We knew that. So tell me why this is still an issue.”

Morioka said that waiting to resolve the HECO issues could have delayed awarding the contract by a few months. He also told the board that HART and HECO have a verbal agreement to give rail construction crews one year of overlap in which they can relocate the nearby power lines underground and build the elevated guideway simultaneously.

The parties haven’t put the deal in writing yet, Mori­oka said. Furthermore, HART doesn’t have specifics on what schedule and timing Shimmick/Traylor/Granite plans to use in order to build rail at the price it gave, he added.

By forcing the firm to start moving the HECO power lines before it builds the guideway, “there’s a possibility it could cost more, and there’s a possibility it could cost less,” Morioka said.

The response irked Hanabusa.

“I’m kind of troubled by that,” she said. “This is the criticism that HART has had over the years. ‘It could be at the end; it could be at the beginning.’ That’s why people get angry with us.”

In an email Monday HECO spokesman Darren Pai said that the utility has agreed to an overlapped schedule “in concept” to relocate the power lines and build the guideway. “We are working collaboratively with HART on a formal agreement in writing,” Pai wrote.

In a March 14 letter, HECO officials told HART that they wanted to have the power line clearance issues resolved “prior to the guideway construction.” The utility company expressed concerns that its requirement on that wasn’t included in the bid documents to build the rail stretches near the airport and in the urban core.

In April Grabauskas called that a “draconian requirement” and said he was hopeful they could find a compromise.

On Monday Hanabusa excoriated rail officials for not addressing the timing issues during their best-and-final-offer discussions, or “BAFO,” with Shimmick/Traylor/Granite.

“It’s not acceptable. I’m not buying it,” she said. “I can imagine how the rest of the public is not buying.”

When Morioka responded that there’s a difference between “administrative” and “more intensive” BAFO processes, Hanabusa appeared more frustrated. She said she wondered why that was the first time the board ever heard such a distinction.

“I am baffled by your explanation of BAFOs,” she said.

On Aug. 1 Honolulu City Councilman Ernie Martin sent a letter to Grabauskas expressing concerns over whether HART could “hold the line” on the Shimmick/Traylor/Granite contract and keep the price in check.

The board spent an additional 90 minutes in executive session Monday discussing Grabauskas’ job review behind closed doors. Its members have now spent more than 14 hours discussing the rail executive’s performance since April, and they’ve scheduled another meeting for Wednesday to keep discussing the matter.