Building Industry Magazine - March 2013 - 12

Q&A with Grabauskas
Building Rail is ‘Building a Better Future for Oahu’

Dan Grabauskas

The 20-mile rail system from Kapolei to Ala Moana Center
has begun to take shape, with some site preparation and an
archeological survey recently completed. For this Q&A with
Building Industry magazine, Dan Grabauskas, CEO of the Honolulu
Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART), recently offered some
of his thoughts on the current status of the $5.16 billion project.

Q: Construction is important
to our readers. What contracts
have been finalized to date, and
how much construction and site
preparation do you expect to see
in 2013? Detail the phases of the
project that are currently under
way or that will begin soon.
A: So far, HART has awarded
contracts to construct the first half of
the rail guideway from East Kapolei to
Aloha Stadium. We’ve also awarded a
contract to build a maintenance and
storage facility that will house and
maintain the trains and system control
center, as well as some design contracts.
Prior to the recent state court
ruling that put a temporary hold on
construction, work on the columns
for the guideway was under way in
West Oahu and some site preparation work had also been done at the
maintenance and storage facility in
Waipahu. We have completed our
trenching work and are preparing
our report so that we can get things
moving again and resume our construction work this fall.
In the meantime, we are continuing with our design work on portions of the guideway and for some
of our rail stations. We also have
other contractors on board to oversee
the work and provide the necessary
support staff.
Q: Elaborate on any preference
being given to awarding contracts
to local construction companies for
the various aspects of the project.

A: Because of procurement
laws, we cannot give preference
in selecting contractors based on
whether their business is locallybased or out-of-state. Some work may
require specific rail expertise that
may not be available here. But for
the most part, contractors as well
as many of the subcontractors are
locally-based and hire local workers.
It simply makes more sense for
contractors to hire local construction
workers, engineers and architects
who are qualified for the job, rather
than pay for extra travel and housing
costs to bring in the workers from
the Mainland.
Q: Are there any expected
changes in the cost of the project
and how it will be maintained?
A. The project’s cost has not
increased—in fact our current financial plan shows a cost that is slightly
lower than our original estimate. The
project’s cost is $5.16 billion, which
includes a contingency fund of about
$644 million and an ending cash
surplus of about $100 million after
the project is completed. In addition,
we just signed an agreement with the
Federal Transit Administration (FTA)
for $1.55 billion in federal funds.
We’re in good financial shape; one
of my top priorities is to bring this
project in on time and on budget.
Even with the funds available to cover
delays costs we are also finding ways
to reduce costs along the way, so the
project’s price tag has not changed.

12 | BUILDING INDUSTRY |MARCH 2013

Q: Explain the key legal issues
still pending? What effect are
current court cases having on the
project’s progress?
A. There are two legal rulings that
we are currently working on. We
are completing our work to comply
with the Hawaii Supreme Court
ruling. In that case, we had received
approval from the state to conduct
our archaeological survey work in
four phases.
We had completed the first two
phases and were cleared for construction in those areas when the court
ruled that the survey work for the
entire alignment had to be done
before we could proceed. The good
news is that we have completed the
field survey work and are in the
process of compiling the report for
state approval. We estimate that
we will be back in construction on
the west side some time around
September.
In the federal case, the plaintiffs
filed more than 50 claims and we prevailed on all but three. The judge has
allowed us to continue with design
work and with work along the first
three phases of the route from East
Kapolei to Kalihi while we complete
the remaining studies that we were
asked to do.
We were not scheduled to begin
construction in the fourth phase until
the summer of 2014 and we’re confident those studies will be finished
well in advance of that, so we’re in
good shape.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Building Industry Magazine - March 2013

‘HUNGRY’ SITEWORK CONTRACTORS
GENERATIONS OF DEVELOPERS
GUAM GOES GREEN
News Beat
Sause Bros. eyes Columbia launch
Maui teams up with prefab home builder
Sakamoto honored as Union Builder of the Year
Core Tech begins housing project
Diocese opts for solar system
NAVFAC picks leadership trainees
BIA show attracts record turnout
Fairall chosen 2012 CGP Professional
Kauai contractors name officers
CRW completes Honolulu Tower Roof
Spotlight On Success: Foodland Kapolei
Contracts Awarded / Low Bids
Concept To Completion: Maui Business Park
Q&A with rail chief Dan Grabauskas
Best Practices
HWEA In Photos
Tribute to Herb Muraoka
Newsmakers
New Products
Editor’s Corner

Building Industry Magazine - March 2013