The state is willing to help finance the Ala Wai flood control project provided the city takes responsibility for construction and maintenance of the system, Gov. David Ige said in a letter Thursday.

In a letter to Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell, Ige said he is committed to seek $125 million as the local share of the Ala Wai project, and said lawmakers have given him authority to make the first two years of debt service payments toward that amount.

Congress last year appropriated $345 million for the project, and the $125 million is the local governments’ share of that cost. Ige said in his letter that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers outlined a process that would allow the state to repay that $125 million in increments starting after the project is completed.

However, Ige said the state will not agree to “become liable or otherwise responsible for the construction, operations and maintenance of the project, including cost overruns. These are clearly city obligations.”

Ige said in the letter that the city needs to sign a project partnership with the Army Corps taking responsibility for the flood control project, and any negotiations in connection with that agreement should be between the city and the Army Corps.

A spokesman for Caldwell said he was traveling on a neighbor island Thursday afternoon and would not be available for comment.

The Ala Wai Canal was built in the 1920s, and flooding of the canal could do extensive damage to the epicenter of state tourism in Waikiki.

The Army Corps has proposed building a 4-foot concrete wall around the canal and placing six debris and detention basins along the watershed that flows into Waikiki. The project also includes pump stations, debris catchment areas and detention areas through the watershed.

Ige asked state lawmakers to appropriate $125 million this year for the project, but the House and Senate have so far refused to do so. House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke has said the state should not provide funding for the project until the city agrees to sign the partnership agreement with the Army Corps.

House Speaker Scott Saiki said Thursday that “this is a decision that the governor needs to make, assuming that the city executes the (partnership agreement).”

“Flood mitigation is a city function, a city responsibility,” Saiki said, but he said the governor has the authority to provide funding for the project under a state financing mechanism called certificates of participation.