At least two — and possibly three — proposals from entities seeking to form a public-private partnership to help complete the city’s troubled $9.2 billion rail project were submitted by Thursday’s 2 p.m. deadline, rail officials said.

“Up to three priority listed offerors” had until 2 p.m. Thursday to submit their final bid proposals for a P3 partnership to construct the final, 4-mile city center segment of the elevated rail line, eight train stations in the Honolulu urban core, and the Pearl Highlands transit center and 1,600-stall parking garage, an estimated $1.4 billion in construction work. The entity also would operate and maintain the 20-mile, East Kapolei-to- Ala Moana Center line for 30 years.

The P3 bidders were initially scheduled to submit their technical proposals in early April, but told the rail authority they were unable to meet that deadline. Andrew Robbins, executive director and CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, has said the problem was that the pandemic prevented the bidders from getting final cost information from their suppliers and subcontractors.

The P3 award date has been repeatedly delayed, and HART now projects the contract will be awarded Aug. 27.

Rail officials said the names of those submitting bids, as well as the proposals themselves, cannot be disclosed at this time due to state procurement laws. The information will be provided when the contract is awarded, HART spokesman Bill Brennan said Thursday.

The partnership would be with the quasi-independent HART, which is tasked with building the rail project, and the City and County of Honolulu through its Department of Transportation Services, the agency that’s in charge of operations and maintenance.

While the P3 plan has been met with skepticism, including from Mayor Kirk Caldwell, HART officials believe it will ensure the project is completed while placing a cap on the city’s financial exposure.

“We are pleased that we’ve been able to move forward on this significant next step for the rail project thanks to the hard work of so many people at both HART and the City, and that the procurement process is continuing as planned,” Robbins said. “Both HART and the City look forward to reviewing the teams’ proposals over the next several weeks and awarding a P3 contract soon after the evaluation is complete.”

Robbins told the HART board last month that the rail line will not actually open as scheduled by the end of 2025 as had been expected, but instead in March 2026.

Robbins told the HART board of directors that the coronavirus pandemic is to blame for the latest delay. The COVID-19 crisis also has delayed the interim opening of the rail line from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium that had been planned for later this year and has already been pushed back to the end of March.

But in an interview with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in May, Robbins said that “the real schedule (for rail) will come out when we get the bids back and we make the award for the P3.” That’s because the P3 contract will set mandatory completion dates for both construction and the launch of operations for the rail line, and “that will become the firm schedule, if you will,” he said.

HART officials said they “conservatively” project that revenue could fall as much as $100 million for this calendar year as a result of an anticipated loss of tax revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic’s impact.

At a HART board meeting Thursday, project Chief Financial Officer Ruth Lohr said that based on University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization long-term projections, she’s “conservatively” projecting that financing ultimately could experience a shortfall of as much as $450 million through 2030.

Previously, Lohr had said it was too early to determine the pandemic’s long-term impacts on project revenue.

Most of the funding for the project is from a 0.5% surcharge on the state’s 4% excise tax as well as a share of the state’s hotel room tax revenue.