The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation last week reached a monumental stage in the development of the city’s Skyline rail project: the award of a $1.66 billion contract for design and construction of its last funded 3-mile segment.
Of course, it’s monumental not only for the importance of the City Center Guideway and Stations segment but for all the work HART is shouldering to get it done. This will take a concerted effort by the agency leadership, ideally with a boost from the mayor and his administration, to get the project over a number of significant hurdles.
The contract, due to be executed next month, went to the lone bidder, Tutor Perini Corp., to design and build Skyline’s urban guideway and six stations, starting just east of the Middle Street Transit Center station and ending at the planned Civic Center station at the intersection of Halekauwila and South streets.
There is perhaps little surprise, but some reason for concern, about the sticker shock. Past estimates for this leg of the project were in the $1.3 billion zone. Inflation over the past three years, fueled in part by supply-chain delays across the economy, could account for some of the $360 million increase in costs. Contingency allowances to cover anticipated risk also could be a factor.
But HART still must grapple with persistent issues, the rising costs being one and a staffing shortage being another. The higher price tag means that hopes for extending construction closer to the originally planned terminus at Ala Moana will not be realized in this contract.
Even more worrying: HART ideally would be fully staffed for this big push through rail’s most difficult corridor. But it is not, and Lori Kahikina, HART’s embattled executive director and CEO, is on the hook to solve this problem as soon as possible.
At a board of directors meeting May 17, HART’s human-resources department reported that the agency is authorized for 135 positions but only had 38 of them filled. Alarm bells had gone off in April, when Nate Meddings, then the project director, suddenly resigned and moved back to the mainland, citing family reasons.
His deputy, Vance Tsuda, replaced him, but the upheaval shook talks with the board over Kahikina’s contract. On June 28, the board provisionally granted a new multiyear contract for her, but salary and other terms were left subject to negotiations; they remain unsettled.
Natalie Iwasa, a member of the HART board, cited expressions of confidence from CEO Kahikina that the staffing situation is turning around.
“This is not just a HART problem,” Iwasa added. “It’s a problem that’s pervasive around the country,” rightly pointing to unfilled positions within the Honolulu Police Department among the key examples.
There’s no doubt about that, but Oahu residents still need to see more evidence that HART has the capacity to get the job done, through filling permanent positions and, in the interim, securing the assistance of outside consultants.
HART is a semi-autonomous public transit agency, but the newly reelected Mayor Rick Blangiardi should be regarding this part of the rail project as a legacy issue for what will be his own two terms of service. Whatever oversight and assistance he might be able to bring to bear to speed hirings at HART would be energy well invested.
Anything that would bring more stability to the enterprise would help to refocus attention on resolving the challenges of bringing the rail through the crowded Dillingham Boulevard segment and into downtown. The measure of success is the same as it ever was: keeping the rail system on time and on budget.
