The Honolulu Rapid Transit Authority’s plan to relocate utilities above and below ground along Dillingham Boulevard to make way for the more than $10 billion Skyline project headed to Kakaako now appears to depend on the strong cooperation of the University of Hawaii.
Specifically, HART is negotiating with UH about placing future rail-related infrastructure and utilities on a portion of Honolulu Community College at 874 Dillingham Blvd.
The planned Station 15 of the fully elevated rail project, Niuhelewai, named after the area and a stream that once ran through the HCC site, is proposed on Dillingham Boulevard at Kokea Street, near the college.
And the station’s elevated guide is also expected to fly over the campus, while the support columns of the guide may be located on the property of the HCC itself, UH officials say.
HCC is among many area properties, including the Kamehameha Schools parcels, located along the front of Dillingham, where the rail line guide is part of the so-called Mauka Shift.
The Mauka Shift, according to HART, will move a section of the guide from downtown Dillingham to the mauka side of the busy road.
That change, the agency claims, will also save time and money for the rail project by eliminating the need to relocate certain utilities—namely, two 138-kilovolt overhead power transmission lines as well as 12- and 48-kilovolt power lines on the makai side of the road.
Moving the guide to the mauka side of the road avoids having to bury all of the power lines on the makai side and avoids the need to move other existing utilities underground, thus improving the project schedule and reducing costs by about $150 million, says HART.
But negotiations about where underground utilities and future support columns for the guide should be placed within the nearly 30-acre HCC campus, located on the mauka side of Dillingham, still continue.
“There has been ongoing coordination between HART and UH throughout the design process and into construction, and HART continues to address any concerns raised by UH,” HART Executive Director and CEO Lori Kahikina told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
To that end, the so-called Railroad Management Committee—made up of representatives of the city, UH and HART—is meeting on this planned work, she added.
Kahikina said there is also an existing Memorandum of Use and Occupancy Agreement, or MUOA, that governs the operations of the rail project, including the stations, at UH West Oahu, Leeward Community College and HCC.
“It was signed in September 2021 by the University of Hawaii, HART and the city’s Department of Transportation Services,” she said. “When the deal was finalized, the Mauka Shift was contemplated, but not approved or designed.”
At the time, it was agreed that the MUOA would be amended—under the so-called “First Amendment”—to include portions of the HCC property needed to accommodate the Mauka Shift, according to Kahikina.
“Terminal sheet described the amendment that will be made to the agreement,” she said. “The terms of the amendment have been under discussion since around October 2025.”
She added, “The approved term sheet will lead to an amended MUOA, which will allow the use of the HCC campus for” the rail project.
In 2022, HART awarded a nearly $500 million contract to Nan Inc. to complete underground utility work on Dillingham Boulevard, a 1.5 mile stretch from Kamehameha Highway in Kalihi to Kaaahi Street in Iwilei.
However, HART officials now say the cost of the Mauka Shift is part of the overall $1.66 billion City Center Guideway and Stations, or CCGS, project.
“There is no isolated cost for the Mauka Shift,” Kahikina said. “It is part of the overall scope of work and schedule of the CCGS. The construction of the CCGS is expected to be completed around 2030.”
In August 2024, HART awarded that major contract to Tutor Perini Corp. based in Los Angeles to design and build the last 3 mile segment of the railway to Kakaako.
But by October 2025, the HART board has engaged Tutor Perini to perform $53.2 million in additional design work to extend Skyline further east, to the Ala Moana Center and beyond.
Kahikina stressed that the effort involving the Mauka Shift and HCC is not part of the much-discussed eastbound rail extension to Ala Moana and possibly UH Manoa. “This is not related to the (UH Manoa) campus or the rail expansion,” she said.
Regarding the work on the HCC property, Kahikina said, “UH has been very supportive of the project and accommodating HART’s needs.”
During a meeting of the UH Board of Regents in early December, Kahikina presented a brief presentation of HART’s Mauka Shift and its potential impacts on HCC.
At the same Dec. 4 meeting, UH Vice President for Budget and Finance and Chief Financial Officer Kalbert Young told the board that it would need to formally consider the “First Amendment on an already existing agreement” with HART, the city and UH.
“The primary purpose of the amendment is to clarify the extent of additional property rights to be used on occupied portions of a number of (UH) sites where trains will be coming,” Young said. “But, in particular, for the portions for the campus (HCC), whose station is required to start construction very quickly.”
“Because HART builds the infrastructure when it begins operations, it will be the responsibility of the city (DTS) to operate and maintain the project for the 80 years of the agreement that has already been approved,” Young said, adding that the property rights included in the First Amendment involve “the exclusive use of an air corridor that will accommodate the campus portion of the HCC guidance.”
“And also an extended area for the railway station in the campus (HCC),” he added. “There will be a requirement for new areas for guide columns and support structures also in the campus itself, and then in the last maintenance buffer zone.”
Young said the board of regents approved the original MUOA in November 2020. “And it authorized the administration to finalize and negotiate the terms of the original agreement,” he said.
He also noted that the original agreement covers three UH campuses – UH West Oahu, LCC and HCC – where four stations either are or will be located on or near those sites. Two stations are already built near UH West Oahu, while one station is located at LCC.
“And the train station (HCC), which is scheduled to start construction,” Young said.
But at the meeting, Honolulu County Regent Neil Abercrombie asked aspects of the project that could have an impact HCC.
Abercrombie said that although he understood “what is at stake” in relation to the placement of railway equipment at the community college he also wanted to ensure, through the amendment, who had the final authority on this project.
“After all the clarification, after all the collaboration, after all the discussion, who makes that decision and is that decision final?” he asked.
In response, the city’s Deputy Corporation Counsel Lisa Hirahara said that the “original MUOA actually has a dispute resolution clause, which requires mediation if the parties cannot come to an agreement.”
“And the mediation will then decide what the decision will be?” Abercrombie asked.
“If the mediation is unsuccessful then the parties can initiate legal action in the Circuit Court, if there is still a dispute,” Hirahara replied.
“Did it ever come to that?” asked Abercrombie.
“No,” Hirahara said.
Later, the board voted unanimously to approve the requested authorization for UH to enter into a First Amendment MOUA with the city and HART “for the construction and operation” of the rail project “on portions of the university’s property.”
After the meeting, Young told the Star-Advertiser that the city, HART and UH “have identified the overall footprint for the station and associated infrastructure in the areas of the HCC campus where the project would be located.”
“Utilities and related infrastructure are generally located along the Dillingham Boulevard frontage of the HCC campus,” he said.
Asked if the city or HART will compensate UH for the use of that property, Young said the agreements “do not include monetary compensation for the use of the property.”
Still, he noted UH’s concerns about the Mauka Shift, and the planned station at HCC, “included defining the specific areas of campus that would be affected, minimizing construction-related disruption—noise, vibrations, access, and safety issues—clarifying long-term responsibilities and ensuring that future campus uses are not adversely affected.”
But Young said the presence of a Skyline station at HCC could be a “significant benefit to students, employees and the surrounding community.”
“The project will improve access to the campus and support wider mobility in the area,” he argued.