Lori Kahikina, executive director and CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, confirmed that the city’s nearly $10 billion rail line will open for public ridership in July.

Appearing on the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream program Monday, Kahikina said rail’s July opening date — first announced by Mayor Rick Blangiardi at his State of the City address March 14 — also took her by surprise.

“I gasped because we expected him to say summer,” she said. “But that’s OK, he put that stake in the ground; he is a dynamic leader and coach, as you folks know.”

In support of the mayor’s declaration, Kahikina said she wrote an email to HART’s more than 150 staff members, which said in part, “We’re not going to make a liar out of him, so let’s get this done.’”

Since then, Kahikina said, strides have taken place including readying rail’s first segment — from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium — for the city’s Department of Transportation Services to operate and maintain.

But she added that “two major things” remained as well.

“That was trial running and the hammerheads,” Kahikina said, noting that 144 test scenarios in the first phase of trial runs for Hitachi Rail’s driverless trains needed to be completed, while the second phase involved system demonstration. “We estimated about 45 to 60 days for Hitachi to hit that 98.5%, but they surprised all of us, including themselves. They got it done in 35 days … on Sunday, April 2.”

Kahikina said repairs to the hairline cracks in the T-shaped supports — known as hammerheads — discovered in 2018 atop the rail columns used to support future rail stations are still being addressed. She added that 21 hammerheads on the west-side rail line suffered cracks, while epoxy injections were used to keep out moisture that might further crack the columns.

“But there are eight columns that need to have ‘post-post-tensioning’ done,” she said, adding that material to fix the hammerheads — namely, rebar — had arrived from the mainland. “The crews are already starting that work. … We are still on schedule to finish that at the end of May.”

Regarding who pays for the repairs or even holds accountability, Kahikina asserted that no discussions over cost or responsibility with the contractor — Kiewit Pacific Co. — have occurred.

“So, I would prefer not to talk commercial, but I can tell you Kiewit has been phenomenal; all of this work that has been ongoing right now, whether it’s been the epoxy or the ordering of the material and shipping here, nothing has been charged to HART,” she said, adding, “Right now Kiewit is footing the entire bill, but no commercial discussions have commenced at this point.”

Other work includes the rail’s third segment.

Contractor Nan Inc. continues ongoing utility relocation along Dillingham Boulevard, east toward the downtown segment. In the downtown area, contractor Frank V. Coluccio Construction Co. will take the project to its terminus at the planned Civic Center Station on Halekauwila Street.

Starting on Monday, Kahikina said, Nan’s work will shift from the makai side of Dillingham Boulevard to the mauka side of the thoroughfare — closing two lanes on the mauka side in the process — in order to continue underground utilities relocation.

And for the rail project’s downtown segment, Kahi­kina confirmed postponing construction of one or more of the rail line’s planned six stations from Kalihi to the Civic Center — an action called a stub-out — also might occur, if necessary.

“But that is absolutely something we would have to look at if we don’t have the funds,” she said. “It’s not what we would like to do — that’s last-resort — but if we have no choice, we have no choice.”

Meanwhile, Kahikina clarified earlier media reports over the Airport Guideway and Station project — four stations built along 5.2 miles of elevated guideway from Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam to the Middle Street transit center — which contractor STG expects to finish construction on by year’s end.

“So the infrastructure — the guideway, the tracks, the stations — should be done by the end of 2023,” she said. “But we still have our core systems … that’s Hitachi, that’s all of the communications … so that segment is slated to be open in 2025, so two years from now.”