HONOLULU (KHON2) — $11.3 billion. That is the current estimate for how much it will cost to build Oahu’s rail transit system.
Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) Interim CEO Lori Kahikina says the price tag comes out to about $12 billion when factoring in the financing cost.
She says they have included every risk they could think of in the budget as HART plans for the worst-case scenario.
“I understand there’s concern, well how come it ballooned just over a few months,” said Kahikina. “Realistically the cost didn’t balloon overnight. I think the previous numbers were very aggressive and maybe risks weren’t calculated in that number.”
HART says there is opportunity to mitigate and even reduce some of these costs.
“So we wanted to be transparent as possible about all of the risks associated with this program,” said Nathaniel Meddings, HART Project Director. “Padding the budget, that’s not what we are doing because every single contingency value was mathematically derived.”
The projected date when the train will be fully operational is March, 2031.
