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Editor’s note: Civil Beat live blogged Tuesday’s Kapolei groundbreaking ceremony for Honolulu’s $5.5 billion rail project. Read the as-it-happened account here.

After decades of disappointment, Hawaii political leaders appeared confident Tuesday that rail is finally on track in Honolulu.

Even a longtime opponent hinted that the opposition’s attempts to stop the project may ultimately fail.

The Kapolei groundbreaking ceremony drew many powerful political figures, including U.S. Sens. Daniel Akaka and Daniel Inouye and Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa. Despite the raucous spending debate in Washington, all three expressed strong confidence the city will receive the federal funding it needs to complete the project.

Hanabusa dismissed Republicans’ attempts to slash federal spending — including money for the Federal Transportation Administration — as “mean spirited,” “inappropriate” efforts that “there’s no way the Senate will accept.”

“President Obama is committed to this project, the Senate is committed to this project,” Hanabusa told reporters after the groundbreaking. “You really are looking at a Republican House that is dripping the money out… I believe the Senate will have the best influence on ensuring the project will continue. And the president!”

Hanabusa is also frank about the possibility of the rail system’s price tag increasing, but says the city will be prepared to handle it “if and when cost overruns occur.”

Akaka was similarly blunt.

“We know that there will be overruns,” Akaka told reporters. “We stand by to see how else we can help in the future as well. Hooray for Hawaii and especially the people of Oahu and the rest of our islands. This is a great day.”

Akaka’s “hooray” wasn’t the only jubilant expression of the day. Mayor Peter Carlisle called out “halleulujah!” in his opening remarks about the project.

“We’re feeling like we’re in really good shape,” Carlisle said. “Am I concerned right now? From my understanding, we’re under budget … If that’s correct, we’re in very good shape.”

Carlisle said the city will submit an updated financial plan in “late spring, almost summer.” The Federal Transportation Administration is requiring the update before it will definitively promise the largest portion of $1.55 billion in federal funds the city is seeking. Chief rail planner Toru Hamayasu said he hopes the FTA will make that promise sometime in the 18 months after the new financial plan is complete. For now, Hamayasu told reporters the cost of the project is still estimated to be $5.5 billion.

The groundbreaking wasn’t the start of actual rail-line construction. The city has clearance to start some key rail-related construction, including moving utilities and acquiring property.

It will likely be at least another year before the city is cleared to build the rail line itself, officials said. In the meantime, the opposition is doing everything it can to stop the project. Carlisle brushed off a question about lawsuits aimed at thwarting the rail line.

“You can’t breathe without getting lawsuits,” said the former prosecutor, with a laugh. “I can’t even count them. If I went one month without a lawsuit, I’d figure I was asleep.”

It’s notable that the groundbreaking ceremony — which officials estimate cost about $30,000 — marks the most progress on rail the City and County of Honolulu has ever made. Much of that progress was driven by former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who received the loudest applause of the day.

“It’s been a long journey,” Inouye told Civil Beat before the ceremony. “In the late ’50s, Neal Blaisdell says to me, ‘It’s about time we get a rail.’ … Now, we have the money. I am going to be around to be the first passenger. I’ve been waiting a long time.”

Tuesday’s ceremony was particularly poignant for the senior senator, who remembers somewhat ruefully his attempt to get the city more than $600 million in the early 1990s, only to have the City Council reject the rail plan. At the time, City Council Chairman Nestor Garcia was Inouye’s press secretary. He said the day the Council effectively killed rail is burned in his memory.

“It was September 17, 1992,” Garcia said. “It was late at night in Washington, D.C., and I put the phone on my chest so I could answer on the first ring without the phone awakening my wife. The City Hall reporter said, ‘The council has voted on the tax, 5-4 down.’ I said, ‘I’m not going to wake the senator for that. Forget about a quote.’ But I did call him, and told him what the result was. Now it’s come full circle. I’m glad he is here to witness this day. To me, it was all unfinished business. Now, I have the opportunity to make it happen for him. Though I never thought back in 1992 I’d be in this position, holding this stick, talking about it.”

Rail supporters are so confident now that they talk about decades of disappointment and failed attempts to built rail with something like nostalgia.

A leading rail opponent, on the other hand, stood on the outside and acknowledged that the city may succeed this time.

Panos Prevedouros, who vowed to run for mayor a third time so he could deliver on a promise to halt the project, said if it continues to move forward, he likely won’t run again in 2012.

“I am going to see how this project develops,” Prevedouros said. “There is a slight chance that the whole project will be expedited. There is a slight chance the environmental lawsuits will not be fruitful. And the project will really start.”