HART P-3 consultant Ernst & Young Infrastructure Advisors (EYIA) presented the findings of its Public-Private Partnership viability analysis today to the HART Board of Directors. Ernst & Young has spent the past several months examining options for HART to deliver the remainder of the Honolulu Rail Transit Project, which would include the Pearl Highlands Parking Garage and Transit Center as well as the 4-point-1 mile City Center Guideway and Stations Section.
A P-3 transfers additional risk and responsibility to a private partner and employs various options to mitigate costs to HART. Among those are “Design-Build-Finance” (DBF), “Design-Build-Finance-Maintain (DBFM), and “Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain (DBFOM). Ernst & Young Infrastructure Advisors compared those methodologies to the “Design-Build” only approach currently used by HART and determined the Design-BuildFinance-Operate-Maintain (DBFOM) option would “likely provide the most benefits to HART.” Additionally, according to the report, Design-Build-Finance-Operate-Maintain (DBFOM) offers clear cost and schedule benefits, incentivizes long-term, high-quality system performance, and enhances opportunities for cost reduction and innovation.
The P-3 analysis accounted for HART’s five delivery goals, 1) to stay within budget, 2) increase certainty of construction cost and schedule, 3) open interim service by 2020 and full-service by 2025, 4) attract partnerships to promote competition and drive innovation, and 5) use transit-oriented development (TOD) as potential incentive to a rail P-3 project.
“We are very excited about the prospect of using P-3 options to finish delivering this project’s MOS (minimum operable segment – to the Ala Moana Station) and to do so within our current budget,” said HART’s Executive Director Andrew Robbins, “With the findings of the E&Y report, I am optimistic about our options moving forward.”
HART’s Board Chair Damien Kim added, “We (the HART Board) are pleased with the work of Ernst & Young knowing that they painstakingly researched the various P-3 options HART can undertake moving forward. The information was presented thoroughly and in clear detail and the Board is looking forward to performing its due diligence in further analyzing that information.”
Robbins said HART will share the findings with the members of the Honolulu City Council later this month. The HART Board will deliberate further before deciding whether HART and the city should proceed with the P-3 option.