Building Industry Magazine - March 2013 - (Page 12)

Q&A with Grabauskas Building Rail is ‘Building a Better Future for Oahu’ Dan Grabauskas The 20-mile rail system from Kapolei to Ala Moana Center has begun to take shape, with some site preparation and an archeological survey recently completed. For this Q&A with Building Industry magazine, Dan Grabauskas, CEO of the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART), recently offered some of his thoughts on the current status of the $5.16 billion project. Q: Construction is important to our readers. What contracts have been finalized to date, and how much construction and site preparation do you expect to see in 2013? Detail the phases of the project that are currently under way or that will begin soon. A: So far, HART has awarded contracts to construct the first half of the rail guideway from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium. We’ve also awarded a contract to build a maintenance and storage facility that will house and maintain the trains and system control center, as well as some design contracts. Prior to the recent state court ruling that put a temporary hold on construction, work on the columns for the guideway was under way in West Oahu and some site preparation work had also been done at the maintenance and storage facility in Waipahu. We have completed our trenching work and are preparing our report so that we can get things moving again and resume our construction work this fall. In the meantime, we are continuing with our design work on portions of the guideway and for some of our rail stations. We also have other contractors on board to oversee the work and provide the necessary support staff. Q: Elaborate on any preference being given to awarding contracts to local construction companies for the various aspects of the project. A: Because of procurement laws, we cannot give preference in selecting contractors based on whether their business is locallybased or out-of-state. Some work may require specific rail expertise that may not be available here. But for the most part, contractors as well as many of the subcontractors are locally-based and hire local workers. It simply makes more sense for contractors to hire local construction workers, engineers and architects who are qualified for the job, rather than pay for extra travel and housing costs to bring in the workers from the Mainland. Q: Are there any expected changes in the cost of the project and how it will be maintained? A. The project’s cost has not increased—in fact our current financial plan shows a cost that is slightly lower than our original estimate. The project’s cost is $5.16 billion, which includes a contingency fund of about $644 million and an ending cash surplus of about $100 million after the project is completed. In addition, we just signed an agreement with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) for $1.55 billion in federal funds. We’re in good financial shape; one of my top priorities is to bring this project in on time and on budget. Even with the funds available to cover delays costs we are also finding ways to reduce costs along the way, so the project’s price tag has not changed. 12 | BUILDING INDUSTRY |MARCH 2013 Q: Explain the key legal issues still pending? What effect are current court cases having on the project’s progress? A. There are two legal rulings that we are currently working on. We are completing our work to comply with the Hawaii Supreme Court ruling. In that case, we had received approval from the state to conduct our archaeological survey work in four phases. We had completed the first two phases and were cleared for construction in those areas when the court ruled that the survey work for the entire alignment had to be done before we could proceed. The good news is that we have completed the field survey work and are in the process of compiling the report for state approval. We estimate that we will be back in construction on the west side some time around September. In the federal case, the plaintiffs filed more than 50 claims and we prevailed on all but three. The judge has allowed us to continue with design work and with work along the first three phases of the route from East Kapolei to Kalihi while we complete the remaining studies that we were asked to do. We were not scheduled to begin construction in the fourth phase until the summer of 2014 and we’re confident those studies will be finished well in advance of that, so we’re in good shape.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Building Industry Magazine - March 2013

‘HUNGRY’ SITEWORK CONTRACTORS
GENERATIONS OF DEVELOPERS
GUAM GOES GREEN
News Beat
Sause Bros. eyes Columbia launch
Maui teams up with prefab home builder
Sakamoto honored as Union Builder of the Year
Core Tech begins housing project
Diocese opts for solar system
NAVFAC picks leadership trainees
BIA show attracts record turnout
Fairall chosen 2012 CGP Professional
Kauai contractors name officers
CRW completes Honolulu Tower Roof
Spotlight On Success: Foodland Kapolei
Contracts Awarded / Low Bids
Concept To Completion: Maui Business Park
Q&A with rail chief Dan Grabauskas
Best Practices
HWEA In Photos
Tribute to Herb Muraoka
Newsmakers
New Products
Editor’s Corner

Building Industry Magazine - March 2013