Lori Kahikina’s appointment as new CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation drew criticism in some quarters because of her inexperience in rail construction.
But after transit lifers Daniel Grabauskas and Andrew Robbins steered the now $11 billion Oahu rail project to its current cliff, where it’s nearly $6 billion over budget and 14 years behind schedule, maybe we need somebody with a broader perspective.
If Kahikina, a longtime city engineer, is game to take on an unforgiving job with infinite downside, it’s worth giving her a fair chance to change the course of this public works disaster.
In eight years as Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s environmental services director and a previous stint as head of city design and construction, Kahikina has shown herself a capable manager and straight shooter — essential qualities in an uphill battle to regain public confidence in rail.
She’s displayed little sign of the BS bug that bit Grabauskas and Robbins, whose endless promises that the check was in the mail grew painfully old when the mail brought only bigger bills.
While she lacks expertise in building railroads, Kahikina is qualified to handle the biggest remaining construction challenge for the 20-mile line from Kapolei to Honolulu: stalled utility relocations along Dillingham Boulevard that are busting the project’s budget and timeline.
She headed the city planning department’s review of HART’s Dillingham utilities problem and is well positioned to help the rail agency correct long-standing deficiencies in its relocation plan.
She’s had ample experience relocating utilities herself as point person for $5 billion in city sewage system construction to satisfy a federal consent decree.
Kahikina says she’s committed to building the full rail route to Ala Moana Center, but HART is more than $2 billion short of what’s needed to achieve that, and raising more funds in a pandemic economy is a doubtful proposition ultimately to be decided by new Mayor Rick Blangiardi, the City Council and the Legislature.
Kahikina’s focus should be on figuring out how far she can build with existing funds — probably to the edge of Chinatown at most — and drawing a realistic and transparent plan to do so following the collapse of Robbins’ grandiose public-private partnership scheme.
She sought a permanent appointment to the $275,000 job, but the HART board gave her only a one-year interim contract, which she accepts as a trial to show herself worthy.
She told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s Gordon Pang, “I understand I need to prove myself and earn the trust of the public, the HART board, the (Federal Transit Administration), the City Council, the other agencies, the different utilities and all the other stakeholders.”
We’re long beyond hoping for miracles on this ill-conceived project, but as long as Kahikina brings HART the openness and truth-telling that’s too long been missing, she deserves a fair shot to show what she can do.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
