Rail agency OKs $8M in added work

Honolulu rail leaders approved $8.3 million in leftover change orders Thursday — cost increases related to delays and premature starts that hit the project’s first 10 miles.

Part of that amount will also help cover the design revisions needed after rail officials decided to include overhead canopies at the future rail stations that resembled Polynesian sails.

The move was aimed to save costs, but officials realized that in heavy wind the canopies would act like actual sails — and they would create heavier loads than the stations were designed to handle.

The funds will compensate Kiewit subcontractor HTNB, which handled design work for rail’s first 10 miles, and the dollars will come from an existing contingency fund. The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation could withhold payment if it finds HTNB is at all responsible for the problems with plastic shims already cracking below the tracks.

The delays in reaching agreements with utility and other government agencies after rail officials had given Kiewit and its subcontractors the green light to start further contributed to the HTNB costs, officials said. HART board Chairwoman Colleen Hanabusa said she worried the rail agency could encounter similar problems on the latest construction contract.

“There are similar unresolved issues for the airport guideway,” she said Thursday. “This is absurd, that we’re still facing these kinds of issues.”

HART’s board plans to announce its interim executive director at its next meeting, Oct. 27. Board members selected him from five candidates, acting Executive Director Mike Formby said.