Honolulu transit-rail project to restart today

The Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transit (HART) will resume construction today on its elevated transit-rail project following recent permit approvals from the Honolulu City Council.

Construction crews will be back at the work site in East Kapolei, pouring concrete for columns for the elevated guideway, and relocating utilities and conducting soil testing further along the alignment, HART officials said in their weekly email newsletter.
Grading work also will resume at the operations and control center in Waipahu.

The work will occur along the first 10 miles of the route from Kapolei to Aloha Stadium. The entire route eventually will total 20 miles, connecting major residential areas with primary job centers.

"Getting back to work now will help to ensure we deliver the rail project on time and on budget," said HART Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Grabauskas.

Construction on the project was suspended last year while HART completed archaeological surveys of the rail alignment as part of a Hawaii Supreme Court ruling. Late last month, the State Historic Preservation Division approved the authority's archaeological records, according to the newsletter.

Last week, the council adopted two resolutions to clear the way for construction to resume.