The Federal Transit Administration has informed Honolulu Area Rapid Transit (HART) that it will not help cover cost overruns associated with the agency’s 20-mile rail line. The project was originally supposed to cost about $5.1 billion, which was already ridiculously expensive, but now is projected to cost at least $8 billion and possibly as much as $11 billion.
The FTA has a long-standing policy that it won’t help cover cost overruns (a policy that is sometimes overturned by Congress). But in this case, the FTA has added a new twist. In light of the cost overruns, HART has proposed to build just part of the project, leaving uncompleted the five miles of the line that would have attracted the most riders. But the FTA says that, in that case, it won’t be giving HART $1.55 billion that the agency is counting on. That means HART won’t even be able to complete the part of the project that it planned.
HART says it is examining its alternatives and hopes to have a viable proposal before FTA by the end of the year. But it probably isn’t looking closely at the most reasonable alternative, which is to completely abandon the project. While it has already sunk several billion into it, abandoning it would save taxpayers billions more in construction costs not to mention an estimated $126 million a year in operating costs. Since the city of Honolulu spends less than $185 million per year operating about 100 bus routes, $125 million is a phenomenal amount of money to spend on just one rail route.
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Abandoning the project will also eliminate many of its negative effects. The traffic analysis for the project estimated that it would increase congestion unless mitigation measures were applied. The elevated route also would rapidly become an eyesore in a community dependent on scenery for much of its income. In short, the project made no sense in the first place, and it still makes no sense after spending several billion dollars on a scenery-blocking elevated line that could probably be blown up and removed for a few million.
8,000,000,000 for a 20 mile route or $6313/inch of route, with 2 tracks and 2 rails per track that’s $1578.28 per inch of steel rail. Light Rail steel track weighs about 2.78 pounds per inch. So they are paying about $568 dollars per pound for the steel tracts.
A pound of gold costs $21,008
A pound of platinum costs $16,816
A pound of silver costs $300,
A pound of nickel costs $4.41
A pound of uranium (U3O8) costs $35.50
A pound of copper costs $2.09
A pound of Chromium (Ferro Chrome) $1.94
.
Somebody needs to come up with an illustration of how much money $8,000,000,000 and what it means to the Hawaiian people. 1,420,000 people in Hawaii, so every single person in Hawaii needs to fork over $5633 so this can be built.
They’re gonna need a bigger fork!
I live on O’ahu and have worked in rail transit on the mainland for 20 years. HART has no idea what it takes to plan a rail system, even if this was a good idea. The voters in Honolulu were really sold a bill of goods with this. Delays, cost overruns and still no idea on how to get traction rail power to the system. Zero transparency and, at best, extreme negligence. What a disaster. The best recovery plan for this will be to stop the project in its entirety.
The Antiplanner wrote:
The FTA has a long-standing policy that it won’t help cover cost overruns (a policy that is sometimes overturned by Congress).
Congress must do a lot of overturning, since it seems that every passenger rail transit project I have heard or read about in the U.S. has construction cost overruns, and usually big ones.
Congress overturning bureaucrats is all part pf the incumbent protection game.
It starts with passing a law that says the administration can only do so much making Congress look good for limiting the government. When the cost overruns start to pile up and locals start complaining about half assed half finished projects, Congress charges to the rescue making sure that everybody knows it was the local Congress critters making things right.