HART is firing back at a contractor that sued the transit company in November over delays in Honolulu’s rail project.
Hitachi Rail Honolulu is a contractor that HART selected to design, construct, operate and maintain core systems of its Skyline rail project. As that project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns, Hitachi has filed multiple suits against HART, alleging those delays have cost Hitachi millions.
While one such lawsuit, filed in 2024, was dismissed earlier this year, Hitachi filed another suit in November. This latest suit claimed $320 million in delay-related damages and accused HART of breach of contract, negligently misrepresenting its own competence and ability to manage the Skyline project and unjustly enriching itself at Hitachi’s expense.
The suit includes a litany of changes, delays and other issues that HART allegedly caused to Hitachi’s detriment. Some of these included:
• Conflicting specifications about train wheel sizes. The design criteria specified a 4.75-inch-wide wheel, which Hitachi provided only to discover, six years later, that other contractors had supplied rail infrastructure that required a wider wheel. This conflict delayed the opening of the first Skyline segment by 13 months, the suit alleges.
• Unnecessarily early mobilization. Hitachi is responsible for operations and maintenance of each Skyline segment as it opens, and HART advised Hitachi to begin its operations and maintenance hiring and training in 2019. While at the time this was thought to be 18 months before the first Skyline segment opened, that segment wouldn’t be completed until 2023, leading to extensive costs on Hitachi’s part.
• Canopies at Aloha Stadium. HART was allegedly responsible to install canopies at Skyline’s Aloha Stadium Station, and only after those installations were complete would Hitachi have access to the station. Said installations were completed only after a five-month delay, the suit alleges.
In addition to the project’s woes, Hitachi accused HART of reneging on promises and its contract with Hitachi. Among other things, HART agreed in 2019 to stop withholding 10% of payments to Hitachi if Hitachi instead posted a retaining bond; Hitachi alleges that, despite securing that bond, HART continued to withhold 10% of payments until 2023.
Other parts of the suit allege that HART underpaid Hitachi for various services rendered, did not provide necessary insurance and more.
HART disputed all of this. On Thursday, HART filed a counterclaim against Hitachi, alleging that the contractor is the one that violated the contract and was either responsible for many of the project’s delays or was not entitled to additional compensation.
For example:
• HART claimed that Hitachi was responsible for confirming that the train wheels were compatible with the track. Hitachi, the counterclaim alleges, had confirmed in 2017 that the wheels interfaced correctly with the track, only to discover their incompatibility three years later.
• While Hitachi claimed its early mobilization for its operations and maintenance work cost it more than $92 million, HART claimed Hitachi failed to provide any employee pay slips justifying that figure and otherwise inflated the supposed costs. HART determined that Hitachi’s cost of early mobilization was only $719,229.
• Any delays caused by the Aloha Stadium canopy installations predate the inclusion of a provision in the contract that would allow for Hitachi to be reimbursed for those delays.
HART also accused Hitachi of fudging schedules in order to justify claims for more money from HART, of double-counting various costs in order to inflate the total damages, and of seeking compensation for costs unrelated to the contract at all.
The counterclaim seeks damages to be determined at court, although, as HART has accused Hitachi of filing a false claim, HART would be entitled to triple damages under the state’s False Claim Act if succesful.
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