Editorial: Help Oahu businesses disrupted by rail

The rail project is about to get real for urban Honolulu, and not in the celebratory way it will when the trains start running.

Starting Nov. 28, the construction work that has marched through Leeward Oahu will finally begin on the long, busy and congested Dillingham Boulevard corridor. That will extend roughly from its beginning near Middle Street to Kaaahi Street on the Iwilei side, a stretch just under 1-1/2 miles.

What will make this upheaval survivable? As much speed as can be mustered, as well as whatever assistance can be offered to the community, especially the businesses that will be bearing up under the strain for about three years.

Information and communication, of course, is crucial. A virtual business and community meeting is being held on the fourth Thursday of each month, with exceptions to be posted on the HART rail website (honolulutransit.org). Also on that site is a link to details on the next meeting, which is one of the scheduling exceptions: noon on Nov. 23, with instructions on how to get connected and to receive email updates.

The initial work is utilities relocation, starting with potholing repairs, with more intensive digging to start early next year. That doesn’t leave much time for the community to get ready, so the meetings could get contentious in a hurry.

In a written response to an email inquiry, Lori Kahikina, CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART), described the Dillingham worksite as a tangle of “spaghetti noodles of critical wet and dry utility infrastructure — water, sewer, electricity, gas and communications.” Much of this network of lines and pipes will be underground to clear the way for the rail guideway to be constructed above, she said.

But the area is so dense that the work will squeeze out much of the traffic along the work zone, and all of this is expected to last at least for the 38-month duration of the contract, issued to Nan Inc.

That will be some largely unavoidable misery for residents and anyone with a reason to drive through the area — many of whom have stops along the way. This translates into economic pain for the businesses that serve them, including many that are only beginning to recover from years of pandemic disruption.

That is why Kahikina said the contractors are being told HART wants to stick to the timeline, which they said is tight in construction terms.

“It’s going to be painful,” she said in an interview on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” webcast, “but we have to get through our project as fast as we can.”

No argument with that intention. But as anyone who has tracked the project could confirm, the city’s nearly 20-mile rail system, bedeviled by delays and cost overruns, is likely to get bogged down at some point in what is its most difficult segment. That means businesses are going to need help of some kind.

Rail officials have said there is planning for promotional events to benefit local businesses, but added that HART has no budget for financial assistance to offset any business losses. That’s in stark contrast to larger cities such as Seattle, where mitigation funds have been tapped for transit construction.

Transit disruptions are extensive, discouraging many people from approaching businesses, especially for goods and services available elsewhere. This is what makes relief programs justifiable, where the effects of more limited roadwork projects generally do not.

Creating a fund or developing other strategies such as property tax relief or forgivable loans should be under discussion by HART and the Honolulu City Council. Such initiatives have been raised before, when construction plowed through Leeward Oahu. In 2015, Bill 42 to establish a mitigation fund was passed, and tax relief for affected businesses was discussed. Not that much came to fruition, though.

It will be undeniably challenging to design mitigation programs that fairly manage distribution of benefits. However, the city did navigate through rent-and-utility aid set up for COVID-19 relief, administered by select nonprofits. It should be in the realm of possibility now.

The community outreach efforts underway now could be a source of new ideas, as well as the inevitable complaints. HART could partner with the Chamber of Commerce and local business associations to plan more easily accessible fairs and other events, devise online sales platforms and find other adaptations.

Kahikina said HART and contractors have been talking with the community through neighborhood boards and coordinating traffic plans with the city Department of Transportation Services. Most bus stops will remain open through a dedicated lane, she added.

In order for the next three years to be sustainable, these conversations must continue. And the more they draw in the voices from people close to the action — or inaction — the more productive they will be. Kalihi, that virtual meeting on Nov. 23 is your chance to start talking. HART really needs to hear what you have to say.