Honolulu’s Skyline rail project will receive another $250 million from the U.S. Department of Transportation as part of its funding agreement with the city, U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz announced Wednesday.
Federal Transit Administration officials had lost confidence in the rail project and stopped sending payments to the city in 2017 toward its original agreement of $1.55 billion worth of federal funds.
But the financial spigot came back on in February when federal officials sent $125 million eight months after Skyline opened for public ridership, restoring relations with the FTA after officials grew frustrated by years of delays and cost overruns.
The rail project had all but been declared dead until then-newly elected Mayor Rick Blangiardi and then-new HART CEO and Executive Director Lori Kahikina came up with a plan that federal officials liked to shorten the route under a new budget the city — and taxpayers — could afford.
The old plan the city could not pay for would build a 20-mile, 21-station route from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center, Hawaii’s largest transit center.
Now it includes only 19 stations and 18.75 miles of track — on an elevated guideway — at a cost of $9.8 billion.
The last stop would be in Kakaako at the so-called Civic Center station.
The latest funding round of $250 million came after HART awarded the contract to build the Kakaako station and final leg of track, Blangiardi said.
But Blangiardi wants to figure how to build — and pay for — another station in East Kapolei, and continue the rail line on to Ala Moana Center and, perhaps, one day to his alma mater, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he was both a UH football player and assistant coach.
In a statement, Schatz said: “HART and the City continue to make good progress on the Skyline, and this new funding is proof of that.”
He chairs the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation.
“With this new money, HART will have more resources to complete the line and give the people of Honolulu more travel options,” Schatz said.
Blangiardi called the latest federal payment “excellent news” that brings FTA officials “back to the table as a construction partner.”
Before they resumed payments to the city in February, federal officials had $744 million left to release.
With the two latest payments, there’s now an outstanding $369 million due to the rail project as HART reaches future milestones.
“While the release of these funds is critical to moving Honolulu’s rail project forward, the funds also represent the confidence of the Federal Transit Administration in this project and in HART,” Kahikina told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in a statement. “We are very appreciative of the continued support and collaboration of the FTA, Hawaii’s Congressional delegation, and all our stakeholders.”
