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The checklist city officials must complete before they can start construction on Honolulu’s $5.5 billion rail project is shrinking. Rail planners Tuesday afternoon got the word from Mayor Peter Carlisle, who is in Washington D.C., that the Federal Transit Administration issued a Record of Decision approving the project.

For city planners, the federal decision is a major milestone after a half-decade of working to move the project forward.

“It’s huge for us,” said Transportation Services Director Wayne Yoshioka. “We’re very excited and very happy that we’re now able to proceed forward and get this project going.”

“Bust out the champagne!” called out Corporation Counsel Carrie Okinaga when she passed Yoshioka in the hallway.

“What this project means is one thing: Jobs,” said Honolulu Managing Director Doug Chin, who is serving as acting mayor in Carlisle’s absence. “This project will create thousands of jobs. It will fuel the city and state’s economy.”

With the Programmatic Agreement and Record of Decision finalized, the city now just needs one major approval from the City Council that would grant a permit allowing construction in coastal zones. The City Council’s Transportation and Transit Planning Committee Tuesday advanced the resolution granting such a permit, and the full City Council will vote on the resolution Jan. 26. City officials have said they expect construction to begin in March.

“The Committee voted, and I agreed with, passage of the resolution,” said City Council member Stanley Chang. “I don’t anticipate there’ll be any problems moving it through the full council.”

After that, rail planners will need a slew of what Yoshioka describes as “routine” building permits. Those permits will be granted to the Transportation Services Department directly by the Department of Planning and Permitting.

However opponents have said they’ll sue to block the project if it receives all its necessary approvals.

“My question remains” Where is the money?” said Panos Prevedouros, a vocal rail opponent who twice failed in his bid for Honolulu mayor.

Prevedouros emphasized that even a milestone as noteworthy as the Record of Decision doesn’t seal Honolulu’s transit fate.

“Past experience in Honolulu has shown that these things can be reversed, although the odds favor the applicant rather than the opponent,” Prevedouros told Civil Beat. “Court action could make it reversible.”

But even City Council member Tom Berg, who has expressed strong skepticism about the rail plan, agreed the news from Washington was positive for the city.

“What a feather in Mayor Carlisle’s cap,” Berg said. “To go over to D.C. and execute this, it’s just dynamite for everybody here. All of this energy and effort we’ve been putting in could have been for naught. Whether you’re pro or against rail, it’s a green light that means we can compete for money with other municipalities. Bring it on!”

In discussions of the city’s rail plan, city officials’ focus is squarely on finances. City Council members who had the opportunity to meet — in small groups, so as to comply with the sunshine law, they said — with U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye today said they spoke about what kind of federal money the city can accept.

“I am looking forward to having some additional federal support for this project,” Chang said. “Sen. Inouye was very helpful expressing support for the project with or without the existing earmarks process. He described other ways of helping this and other projects.”

Chang declined to elaborate on the senior senator’s ideas, but City Council Vice Chair Breene Harimoto, who chairs the Transportation and Transit Planning Committee, said he believes the city will secure the federal funds it needs.

“I have great confidence in Sen. Inouye’s persuasiveness,” Harimoto said. “I fully expect that we will get the money. How he works his magic, I’ll leave to him.”