Honolulu Rail Supporters Worry About Funding Under Trump Administration
The city is counting on another $600 million from the Federal Transit Administration to help pay for rail construction to Kakaako.
The troubled Honolulu rail project has for years been counting on millions of dollars in federal funding being released in tranches as certain milestones are met.
Officials are now scrambling to secure the remaining funds amid concerns that the incoming Trump administration may be hostile to a project that is already years overdue and over budget.
The Federal Transit Administration in 2012 committed $1.55 billion in federal funding to the construction of the largest public works project in Hawaii history. So far the federal government has provided more than $931 million of that total.
The chief operating officer for Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, which manages the project, expressed confidence that the flow of federal funding for rail will continue now that Donald Trump has been elected to a second term, but acknowledged the funding is not guaranteed.
“We do feel confident that we will still get that, but right now there’s no guarantee on that,” Rick Keene said. “We are trying to get more assurance that the rest of it is still there.”
The that a Republican-led U.S. Senate and the president-elect may object to further federal spending on rail projects, but it is unclear how that might affect the Honolulu project and the remaining $619 million in committed federal funds.
U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz declared that the Full Funding Grant Agreement the city signed with the FTA more than a decade ago to secure the $1.55 billion in federal money for rail is “a binding contract.”
“We expect both parties to adhere to the provisions within the contract,” Schatz said Monday in a written statement. “We will continue to work with the FTA and the City to make sure the milestones are met and the remaining federal funding is obligated as outlined in the FFGA.鈥
Scott Humber, communications director for Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, said in a written statement that “it鈥檚 too early to predict the direction the new administration will take.”
“However, Mayor Blangiardi remains confident in the strong relationship he has built with the Federal Transit Administration and Hawaii鈥檚 Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.,” Humber said.
Richard Oshiro, HART’s deputy聽director of budget and finance, told the HART board of directors on Friday that staff are hurrying to complete the necessary documentation to draw down another $250 million of that federal money.
The transit authority hopes to receive that funding tranche later this month or in early December, Keene said. HART’s financial plan calls for the rest of the FTA funds to be delivered to the rail authority over the next three fiscal years.
Anthony Aalto, a HART board member, asked Friday how certain the city can be that the rest of the money will actually arrive.
The $10 billion elevated rail line has been struggling for years with construction delays and vast cost overruns.
The original 2012 agreement with the FTA called for the rail line from East Kapolei to Ala Moana Center to be completed by 2020 for $5.2 billion. The city finally opted in 2022 to scale back the project to end it in Kakaako to try to hold the cost below $10 billion.
Construction is now scheduled to be completed in 2030.
