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 — awarded a $1.66 billion contract 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."
Segment Two
The first segment of the rail opened in June 2023 and spans just under 11 miles from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium. This section includes the rail's first nine stations: Kaualakaʻi (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, HART noted.
(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 begin operations in October.
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.
Check out the full route map here.
Lessons learned
What lessons have HART learned from earlier segments of the rail that they can use during the construction of the third?
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.
"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 HonoluluTransit.org. You can also sign up for HART's weekly eBlast newsletter.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
