power lines underground.īut the shift means that HART will have to work with the University of Hawaii and Kamehameha Schools for rights of way to use their land. Instead of running rail's overhead guideway straight down Dillingham Boulevard, Kahikina said the guideway is now planned for the mauka side, which will eliminate the need to put both makai and mauka Hawaiian Electric Co. The way we contracted that project was not the correct vehicle to use."
The original $400 million Dillingham contract ballooned to $650 million so "I did stop that, " Kahikina said. "We seem to have multiple layers of consultants, contractors and our own staff doing review upon review so we've already cut some of our own staff, we've cut some of the high-paid consultants, " she said.Īnd she's canceled the contract to build rail through Dillingham Boulevard, which is plagued by issues of burying utility lines in a tight corridor where HART does not yet have access to needed property. Kahikina expects to have all job decisions made by the end of the month but some already have been made. “I think it’s a slap in the face of native Hawaiians,” she said.From her first day at HART just over two months ago, Kahikina said she has identified inefficiencies and redundancies, canceled the contract for the problem-plagued route down congested Dillingham Boulevard and is planning unspecified job cuts to HART staff, consultants and contractors. He described the elevated platforms as “almost like compact football fields in the air.”ĭonna Wong, the executive director of Hawaii’s Thousand Friends, an environmental group, expressed fear that the elevated line’s lights would distract birds in migration patterns and disrupt Hawaiian historical sites. “It’s twice as expensive - for only 20 miles of track - as the Washington Metro.” There is no other way to describe it,” said Panos Prevedouros, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Hawaii and a past candidate for Honolulu mayor. Some of the opposition is financial, with opponents arguing that the cost is wildly expensive for the benefits it will bring. Some environmentalists are loath to oppose any project that encourages the use of mass transit over cars, while others question the wisdom of Oahu essentially doing the opposite of what New York City did half a century ago, when it began removing elevated train lines that cast a shadow along Manhattan avenues, and at a time when so many other cities are trying to bury highways and rail lines. Reaction to the train defies some of the usual lines. The Honolulu rail project, scheduled for completion in 2018, seems certain to change sharply the nature of much of the south side of the island, as well as downtown Honolulu.
The two-track line -a 30-foot-wide span, with 21 elevated stations - is designed to accommodate an increasing crush of commuters and tourists while encouraging new growth and development, particularly on this undeveloped part of the island. Barring a court intervention, construction is to begin in March on a 20-mile rail line that will be elevated 40 feet in the air, barreling over farmland, commercial districts and parts of downtown Honolulu, and stretching from here to Waikiki. A 40-year battle to build a mass transit line appears to be nearing its end. This is rural Hawaii: waves and coastline on one side, lush mountains on the other and barely a building or vehicle in sight.īut sometime this spring, a $5.3 billion project is scheduled to rise from the Kapolei farmlands that offers powerful evidence of how much this island, a symbol of Pacific tranquillity, is changing.
KAPOLEI, Hawaii - From the farmlands here on the western side of Oahu, the hotels of Honolulu and the bluffs of Diamond Head can be seen rising 20 miles in the distance.