Local rail officials are gearing up for the final testing of Oahu’s transit line this month, and they’re poised to hand the western half of the system over to the city for passenger service sometime later this year
But fundamental flaws in the track crossings and train wheels remain, according to a project whistleblower and longtime track industry expert.
That’s despite the relatively cheap and quick fixes that the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation recently took to address those problems.
The lingering issues will leave the city with tracks and wheels that will be incredibly difficult to maintain once the system opens and potentially present a safety problem in the long term, said David Walker, who worked on the Honolulu project as a track construction consultant for the firm Stantec from February 2020 through February 2022.
“This design lends itself to not being maintained properly,” said Walker, who’s spent five decades in the rail industry.
“I want Hawaii to have a safe, maintainable system. My problem … is that HART doesn’t make decisions in a timely manner. The decisions they do make are not cost-effective.”
Walker’s misgivings, on the verge of rail’s long-awaited partial opening, follow a history of construction–related missteps affecting multiple aspects of the transit project. Stantec, Walker said, reassigned him back to the mainland after he repeatedly insisted to HART leaders, including Executive Director Lori Kahikina, that the current design won’t...
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