Abercrombie Clears the Way For Rail
At a hastily-called press conference at dusk the day before a furlough Friday, Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle celebrated a milestone in what is on track to become the largest infrastructure project in Hawaii history.
Carlisle revealed Thursday that the city had received a signed, approved copy of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Honolulu rail project from Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
The original copy with Abercrombie’s signature — and the word “Wayne” hand-written over the formal “Mr. Yoshioka” salutation — sat next to Carlisle as he stood at the podium in his Honolulu Hale office. The city said it received the document within the hour before the press conference began around 6:15 p.m.
“We’re gonna do it now. Shovels are going to get in the ground soon, and I’m excited,” Carlisle said. “It’s a thrill.”
With Honolulu City Lights patrons milling around two floors below and a gigantic shirtless Saint Nick bathing his feet in the fountain in front of Honolulu Hale, Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council Executive Director William “Buzzy” Hong got in the holiday spirit.
“We told Santa that we wanted a train for Christmas, and he delivered,” Hong said, describing Abercrombie’s approval as a “present” for thousands of job-hungry construction workers. Carlisle said 2,000 full-time jobs would be created by next summer.
Hong, speaking on behalf of the AFL-CIO and other public employee unions, also said that the project would come in “on time and under budget.” Asked by Civil Beat if he could back up that boast, Carlisle said, “I will do my very best to hold their feet to the fire.”
While Carlisle and his guests — Hong, First Hawaiian Bank CEO Don Horner, Kapolei Development executive David Rae1 and Honolulu City Council Chair Nestor Garcia — spoke, Abercrombie quietly issued a press release announcing that he had signed EIS for the proposed $5.5 billion rail system. He said on the campaign trail that he would do so as soon as he verified it complied with environmental laws. He wasted little time in affixing his signature after taking office on Dec. 6, just 10 days earlier.
“The economic, social, and environmental impacts which will likely occur should this project be built, are adequately described in the statement,” Abercrombie said in his letter to Honolulu Department of Transportation Services Director Wayne Yoshioka. “My acceptance of the statement is an affirmation of the adequacy of that statement under the applicable laws. I find that the mitigation measures proposed in the environmental impact statement will minimize the negative impacts of the project.”
The project had been held up by former Gov. Linda Lingle, who contracted an independent consultant to evaluate the city’s financial plan. Asked by Civil Beat if he had concerns about cost projections in the city’s Final EIS, Carlisle directed his staff to distribute an eight-page rebuttal to the state consultant’s report.
“Concerning both bus and rail, the report’s conclusion of a resulting $1.7 billion shortfall is not adequately substantiated,” the rebuttal states in its summary. Carlisle declined to go into details about its contents during the press conference. (Civil Beat will explore it in greater depth on Friday.)
Carlisle said he considers Lingle a friend and would not speak about her claim that the EIS had never actually found its way to her desk for a signature. But he said that the rail process has made an impression on him during his short time in office, and that Gov. Abercrombie’s green light on the rail project gives him hope about a positive working relationship among the city, the state and the federal government.
Carlisle said the next step is a federal Record of Decision, and then construction on the 20-mile rail line can begin in early 2011. Asked if that meant January, Carlisle declined to comment on specifics.
Of course, there are other hurdles the city faces.
There are permits to obtain and promised federal monies to secure. It’s likely rail opponents will file lawsuits in an attempt to stop the project. Even if those suits ultimately fail, further delays to the project may hurt funding prospects. Concerns about burials along the rail route have yet to be fully assuaged.
Despite all those hurdles, Carlisle said he’s confident everything will move forward as planned.
