HART Receives Bids To Build Elevated Rail Line
Written by Jennifer McLawhorn, Managing Editor
Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation
HONOLULU – Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit (HART) plans to award a contract to build the elevated rail line through Honolulu’s city center in August.
According to the Civil Beat, HART has not yet commented on the number of proposals it received this week “or whether those bids are affordable.” In 2023, HART estimated the cost of the 3-mile segment and six stations, also known as the City Center Guideway and Stations, would be between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion. However, the cost of materials and labor have increased. When asked, Director of government relations and public involvement for HART, Joey Manahan, said, “HART will be able to share the information once the contract is awarded.”
Previously, the rail segment was slated to extend to Ala Moana Center, but a recovery plan was agreed to in 2022 that would allow them to cut costs by shortening the segment to end at the Civic Center Station in Kakaako. When the city finalized the cost in 2012, the rail project was estimated to cost $5.2 billion. According to the report, the project “required a series of financial bailouts because of cost overruns,” and the cost has ballooned to almost $10 billion. Now, there are limited federal and local funds, making it unclear what will happen “if the bids for the city center segment are too high.”
In 2022, these limits proved apparent when HART “opted to defer construction of a 1,600-stall Pearl Highlands Parking Garage.” This was because HART said current funds would not be enough to complete the guideway to the Civic Center Station. Last year, the city of Honolulu narrowed down “the field of qualified bidders for the city center portion of the project,” and HART officials “have said more than one bidder was deemed qualified to advance to the second stage of procurement.” These bidders had a deadline this week: Tuesday at 2pm in order to submit their proposals.
An FTA consultant was hired to monitor the project and has reportedly said that “market conditions and the possibility of ‘constrained competition’ for the city center contract are seen as a high risk for the overall cost of the project.” Part 1 of the procurement shows HART paying the $5 million conceptual design fee “or their ‘reasonable’ out-of-pocket costs for conceptual design work done for their proposals.”
Earlier this year, HART said it plans to award the contract on August 23rd and issue a notice to proceed on September 16th. The report says the FTA will release $250 million in federal funds “if the city can award an affordable contract to build this segment of the project.”
