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Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

But hold on, is it bad luck to even joke about this? Oh no, now we've repeated the joke! Ahhh!

Pali Tunnel i Stock 182908571 16x9

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Pork over the Pali</title>

Today's social media find comes from kenekethegreat, tunneling his way to laughter.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Pork over the Pali

But hold on, is it bad luck to even joke about this? Oh no, now we've repeated the joke! Ahhh!  

Christian Shimabuku Headshot

Christian Shimabuku

Sports

The University of Hawai‘i football program held its inaugural "Braddahhood Ball" fundraiser on Saturday night at the Sheraton Waikīkī, an event that organizers saw as a success. 

Spearheaded by Sherry Chang, the wife of UH head coach Timmy Chang, the event served as one of multiple fundraisers the Rainbow Warriors held over the summer, and the final before the team's season opener on Aug. 23 against Stanford. 

Attendees of the event included Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi, 

UH athletics director Matt Elliott, UH president Wendy Hensel

Other fundraisers the program has held over the years, also organized by Sherry Chang, include the "Sistahhood Social" held at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex. Saturday's Braddahhood Ball was a full-scale event that featured a live auction, allowing attendees to bid on game day experiences for UH's home game against Sam Houston on Sept. 6, its road game at UNLV on Nov. 21 and a Jan. 4 San Francisco 49ers game against the Seattle Seahawks. 

An estimated $60,000 was raised for the Rainbow Warriors during the auction, which also included golf rounds at various Hawai‘i courses and chances to bid on various Waikīkī staycations. 

Funds raised on Saturday will go towards supporting the UH football program in areas such as nutrition and Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities. 

"We had a venue, we had a date, and then from there it was like, we just need to kind of get the people here and make sure they have a good time," Ryan Komagome, a childhood friend of Timmy Chang, told Aloha State Daily. "It's an event that people want to come to for future years. It kind of sets the foundation and helps to build the excitement for the football season that's coming next week."

An attendee on Saturday mused that the hundreds of people he saw seated in the Sheraton Ballroom surpassed any fundraising gatherings he saw for the program, even in its glory days of 2006 and 2007. 

"That was the goal, just get as many people who support the program to have a good time," Komagome said when told of that comparison. "I think we just kind of built the venue, and there were so many people that helped. It wasn't a small group. There's a lot of people who were instrumental and using their contacts to get people to come. I think it was an event that just seemed to catalyze people. There really wasn't one event that people could come to. There were various things like a golf tournament and you could donate directly. But I think this event is something easy to sell. It's a fun event that people are going to enjoy."

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Braddahhood Ball 081725

<title>Hawai‘i football holds inaugural Braddahhood Ball</title>

The debut fundraiser for the Rainbow Warriors saw tens of thousands of dollars raised during a live auction on Saturday night.

Hawai‘i football holds inaugural Braddahhood Ball

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Government & Politics

Construction of the third section of Honolulu's Skyline rail system has taken another step forward as transit officials ready for the second segment to open this fall.

A blessing and groundbreaking ceremony was held earlier this week at the future site of the 

Ka‘ākaukukui, or Civic Center, station in Kaka‘ako for the next phase of the project, the city center guideway and stations.

The CCGS project includes the construction of nearly three miles of elevated guideway and six rail stations, starting near the 

Kahauiki, or Middle Street Transit Center, station and ending at the the Civic Center station, just east of the intersection of Halekauwila and South streets, an announcement from HART, or 

the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, noted. Construction is expected to be finished by 2030.

The first part of the work will begin in the Iwilei area and includes drilling shafts for the columns that will support the guideway, the announcement noted, adding that working hours will span from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturdays as needed. HART officials say the hours, though, depend on where they're working.

HART — the public transit authority responsible for planning and building the rail system for the City and County of Honolulu —  

 for the design and construction of the CCGS project to Tutor Perini Corp. in August 2024.

CEO and Executive Director Lori Kahikina told Aloha State Daily Monday afternoon that reaching this point is "very meaningful for this team."

It's the second or third time that HART has tried to procure the last segment, she said, "and to finally actually do it, what a milestone it was for all of us."

Utility work for this segment of the rail has been underway for the last two years, but Kahikina said the hope is that the utilities will be finished in the Downtown Honolulu area by the end of the year and the Dillingham corridor by next summer.

"But soon you'll start to see the shafts being drilled and the columns coming up also before the end of the year," she says. 

"Then, once you start seeing the columns come up, of course then the guideway goes on top of that, but simultaneously, they'll start the stations," Kahikina continued. "So maybe in about two years, you'll see stations start to come up."

"Everything's going to be foundation work, then you'll just slowly start to see structure come up out of the ground," Deputy Project Director Matt Scanlon told ASD.

Kahikina says it's premature to talk about possible detours and general road closures, but she noted that the state Department of Transportation director had some "questions and concerns, so we want to see how can we change some of the maintenance and traffic to make sure we minimize the impact."

"We're not going to be able to eliminate it — it is a reality of construction — but hopefully it's not going to be as intrusive as Dillingham  ... . But [it's] a little bit premature to share how many lanes we're going to be closing and in what direction."

Anyone who's driven Dillingham Boulevard in recent years has witnessed the ongoing work that has shifted traffic patterns and caused delays.

Scanlon says that once contractors begin building the guideway, "they'll put down more of a permanent barrier."

On Dillingham, they'll largely be "building in the middle, so you'll see more of a fixed maintenance of traffic setup and then they'll just have an assembly line," he explained. "They'll start with the foundations and then the columns and they'll build the guideway, so it'll start to look like an assembly line going down the road and a little less haphazard than the utilities were, with cones moving around a lot."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Segment Two"}]

 and spans just under 11 miles from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium. This section includes the rail's first nine stations: K

aualakaʻi (East Kapolei), Keoneʻae (University of Hawai‘i-West Oʻahu), Honouliuli (Hoʻopili), Hōʻaeʻae (West Loch), Pouhala (Waipahu Transit Center), Hālaulani (Leeward Community College), Waiawa (Pearl Highlands), Kalauao (Pearlridge), and Hālawa (Aloha Stadium).

The second section, running 5.2 miles from Aloha Stadium to the Middle Street Transit Center, is on track to open in October.

This portion will add four more stations to the route: Pearl Harbor, the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, Lagoon Drive and Middle Street.

Trial operations just began late last month and the safety certification is being done in coordination with city state and federal agencies, 

(Eastbound passengers take note: you have to exit the train at the Aloha Stadium station before it enters segment two. Once the train returns westbound to the station, you can board the train to continue your trip).

Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi announced during his State of the City address in March this segment of Skyline would 

According to Kahikina, segment two is in "system demonstrations," which measures the train's service availability and evaluates its performance and reliability.

Tsuda said they need to reach a 30-day rolling average of 98.5% availability.

"Once we finish that, then we have met all the requirements and we can turn it over to DTS for revenue service," he says. "Right now, based on where we are, we are still on track for the Oct. 15 grand opening and then the 16th ... for passengers to ride."

HART also has to "safety certify the system," which will run concurrently with this demonstration, he noted.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lessons learned"}]

What lessons have HART learned from earlier segments of the rail that they can use during the construction of the third?

[{"type":"text","text":"There's a whole list, Kahikina says."}]

"We've gone through a number of items as we finished off segment one and turned over to [Honolulu's Department of Transportation Services], and as DTS has been operating segment one, they've provided some lessons learned that we're implementing," Project Director Vance Tsuda told ASD.

Among the changes you might see include the canopies on the station platforms, he noted. For example, segment one and two have a tensile fabric canopy but segment three will have a more traditional metal roofing material.

Scanlon said, too, that the way the guideway is being built is also changing.

The first two segments have been constructed with "precast segmental construction," where individual segments, "almost like Lego pieces," were built off-site in West O‘ahu and trucked in, he explained. The segments were then assembled with an overhead gantry, or overhead suspended crane, and tensioned together.

"We're going to be building the city center with a more traditional pre-cast girder system," Scanlon continued.

Before, the stations were tired more to when the guideway came through, he says.

[{"type":"text","text":"\"We're building for the first time six stations at once.\""}]

Scanlon says that building the guideway and stations independently will allow the contractor to start the stations much sooner than in the first two segments, and will save both time and money.

More information about the rail project can be found at 

25 0227 CCGS Blessing Site 33

<title>HART breaks ground on next phase of Honolulu rail project</title>

A blessing and groundbreaking ceremony was held Aug. 11 at the future site of the Ka‘ākaukukui, or Civic Center, station in Kaka‘ako for the next phase of the project, the city center guideway and stations.

HART breaks ground on next phase of Honolulu rail project

meeting was held on Wednesday morning. The board typically meets on the last Thursday of each month, but Wednesday's meeting was organized in an effort to execute a contract between the New Aloha Stadium Entertainment District (NASED) and the developer, Aloha Hālawa District Partners (AHDP), before a self-imposed Aug. 15 deadline between the two parties. 

Following a prolonged executive session as the Stadium Authority sifted through some 600 pages of legal documents, a vote was unanimously approved to initiate a ground lease agreement with 

, which would begin with demolishing the current stadium. 

All signs point toward a March 2029 completion towards the new Aloha Stadium, which will seat 22,500. The initial target date for the new stadium was August 2028, with the University of Hawai‘i's Aug. 26, 2028 opener against Kansas being eyed as the first game the Rainbow Warriors would play in their new home. 

The only game thus far on Hawai‘i's 2029 schedule is an Aug. 25 home contest against Arizona. Former Stadium Authority board chair 

, who stayed on as a special advisor, says he hopes events are held at the new stadium in the months before the 2029 college football season in order for organizers to get their bearings on what works well operationally and what doesn't. 

New Stadium Authority board chair Eric Fujimoto expects the city to issue demolition permits next week. 

The seating capacity of 22,500, as well as 10 luxury boxes, was agreed upon as the best number to begin with after 

, such as tariffs and the delivery of materials and supplies. Future seating expansion remains an option. For now, the intent is to have a stadium suitable for football, soccer and rugby. 

AHDP, led by Stanford Carr, is prepared to spend $475 million in total in building the stadium itself. Of the $475 million, $350 million comes from the state. An additional $49.5 million in operating costs has yet to be accessed but has brought the state's allocation towards the stadium to $400 million. That means as part of the public-private partnership, AHDP would allocate $125 million of its own money to meet the $475 million towards the stadium.

In addition to the completion of the stadium in 2029, AHDP will continue to work on building the surrounding entertainment district, which also includes affordable housing. A official timeline for the completion of the entertainment district has not been released. 

As NASED and AHDP neared an agreement, August 2028 no longer seemed feasible, but December 2028 did. 

"But that would have been very aggressive," Morioka said following Wednesday's meeting. "None of us would have been comfortable with setting an overly aggressive date, knowing that the date is probably going to change and in trying to be as transparent as possible. ... This project has been based on transparency. So we wanted to make sure that this is what transparency looks like, right? The good news, as well as some of the not so good news.

"We think that the March 2029 date is a very realistic date, very achievable date, that I think people can kind of start setting their minds around. We didn't want to set an aggressive date and then we go through construction, start not hitting certain dates and milestones. Then the public starts talking about, well, there we go again. You know, we wanted to be very upfront from the very beginning. These are expectations. These are what we believe are achievable. And so we wanted to make sure that the public knew this is the path forward that we're going for."

Despite Wednesday's announcement, NASED officials still need a signed operational agreement from AHDP but are able to proceed with demolition of the current stadium. 

Although there are still items that need to be checked off throughout the process, Wednesday's meeting had an air of triumph to members of the Stadium Authority board. 

"If you love Hawai‘i, share this with me: I proudly affirm a unanimous vote," Fujimoto said at the end of the meeting, receiving a round of applause in the room.

Meanwhile, on Aug. 23, the University of Hawai‘i football team will open its 2025 season against Stanford on 1:30 p.m. at the Clarence T.C. Ching Athletics Complex, marking the fifth season in a row that the Rainbow Warriors have used their temporary stadium on campus. 

"Very excited for the state of Hawai‘i," head coach Timmy Chang said after Wednesday's practice when asked about the possibility of a new Aloha Stadium. "We all as a community use it for reasons and purposes. When it gets done, it's going to be exciting."

Chang played in the old Aloha Stadium as a high schooler for Saint Louis as well as collegiately for UH. 

"Playing is one thing, but I really just enjoyed my childhood there being a ball boy and watching when life was a lot more simpler, and just running around up and down the sidelines and throwing the ball to referees and being a ball boy for ILH football games," Chang recalled. "Those are some of my best memories, just being able to play or catch field goals and just be at big games and Prep Bowls and those type of things, and so I really enjoyed that time in my life."

Aloha Stadium Authority meeting 081325

<title>New plans for Aloha Stadium revealed</title>

The Aloha Stadium Authority board held a special meeting on Wednesday prior to the self-imposed Aug. 15 deadline between NASED and AHDP, where a new completion date and seating capacity were revealed.

New plans for Aloha Stadium revealed

Katie Helland Headshot

Katie Helland

Entertainment

Arts & Culture

, a 43,000-square-foot facility that includes a new public library, community college classrooms and offices for the state Department of Education. The project’s groundbreaking took place on July 28.

Aloha State Daily spoke with State Librarian 

 about plans for the new Wahiawā Public Library, which will occupy about 12,000 square feet of the center, according to representatives of her office.

“We're excited about having a new space, but we're also excited that we're going to be involved with education,” Aldrich said.  

The new library will include a more defined children’s area, as well as outdoor reading spaces on the first floor of the facility. The center’s third floor will have 

 for the University of Hawaiʻi Community Colleges.

“You don't know what's possible until you can see it sometimes,” she said. “I think about kids playing in the library while their parents — or their brother, sister, caregiver, friend or family member — is taking a class.”

Experiences like that help keiki learn in their own communities, she added.

The new library will replace one that was built in 1965, according to representatives of the Office of the State Librarian.

While the new space is being built, a pop-up library opened within the Wahiawā Shopping Center, which is anchored by Foodland, Taqueria El Ranchero and Goodwill Store and Donation Center.

“We did a soft launch a couple weeks ago, and it'll be open until we move back into the new building,” Aldrich said. “We'll probably have a shutdown period between the moves, because we'll have to move everything into the new space, but we'll keep it open as long as we can. We're trying to make sure that the community has access to a library during this construction period, because it is a well-used library.”

The temporary space has books, places to sit, computers, Wi-Fi and some programming for keiki, she said.

Once this public library is complete, it will be in the first co-location project in the state that does not involve a school campus

. Currently, the library system has co-location projects at public schools. There are a dozen public libraries located on school campuses across the state.

Other library projects are in the works, including a new library for Lahaina, where the location on Wharf Street was damaged in the 

“It's important for us to have the space in Wahiawā,” Aldrich said. “It's also an opportunity for us to experiment a little bit. As we build new libraries, we're trying to build flexibility into the spaces. The children's area in particular, we've been really pushing to make it engaging and active so kids will have places to go sit and read in the bookcases. ... We're trying to make it a more engaging space ... where kids are excited to come and to play, and something that helps them to be curious.”

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