Outside Counsel for Environmental Re-Evaluation

1.0 Overview

This Request for Proposals (RFP) is issued by the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation (HART) to solicit sealed proposals for the Outside Counsel for Environmental Re-Evaluation Professional Services contract of the Honolulu Rail Transit Project (HRTP).

1.1 HRTP Description

The HRTP is an approximate 18.75-mile grade-seperated, automated fixed rail system from East Kapolei in the west to the Civic Center Station, located east of downtown Honolulu, in the east. The HRTP includes 19 stations, 80 light-metro fully automated (driverless) rail vehicles, a maintenance and storage facility (MSF) on a 44-acre parcel near Leeward Community College, and three part-and-ride facilities. The mission of the HRTP is to provide fast, reliable public transportation servcies in rapidly developing areas with a diverse population. The HRTP is the largest infrastructure project in the history of the State of Hawai’i and will be the first fully automated commuter rail system in the nation.

The HRTP alignment is separated in to three segments as follows:

• Segment 1 – Kualaka’i (East Kapolei) Station to Halawa (Aloha Stadium) Station
• Segment 2 – Halawa (Aloha Stadium) Station to Kahauiki (Middle Street) Station
• Segment 3 – Kahauiki (Middle Street) Station to Ka’akaukukui (Civic Center) Station

The HRTP will provide high-capacity rapid transit service in the travel corridor between East Kapolei and Kakaako, located east of downtown Honolulu. This corridor includes the majority of housing and employment on O’ahu. The north-south width of the corridor is a maximum of four (4) miles, with the corridor constrained by the Ko’olau and Wai’anae Mountain Ranges to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south.

HART’s responsibility is for the design and construction of the Project. As each segment is completed and ready for passenger service, the completed segment will be transferred to the Hawaii Department of Transportation Services (DTS), which will be responsible for rail operations and maintenance.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for  the HRTP was released in the June 2010 and the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (FSEIS) and Amended Record of Decision were released in Spetember 2013. The FEIS and additional information on the HRTP can be found on the Honolulu Transit site.

A comprehensive environmental re-evaluation to confirm whether the FEIS and FSEIS remain valid for agency decision making, in light of Project changes is currently being conducted, and administration of the Honolulu High-Capacity Transit Corridor Project (HHCTCP) Section 106 Programmatic Agreement is ongoing.

1.2 Scope of Work for Outside Counsel for Environmental Re-Evaluation

The selected Offeror(s) (or “Contractor”) will provide as-needed legal services in support of HART and its Post-Record of Decision Environmental Re-Evaluation and underlying reports, including a Section 4(f) analysis (collectively, “Re-Evaluation”), in light of modifications made to the HRTP.

Download solicitation documents for full details.