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U3. Department Administrator 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
of Transportation Washington, DC 20590

Federal Transit

Administration JUL '2 1 2015

The Honorable Kirk Caldwell
Mayor of Honolulu

530 South King Street, Suite 300
Honolulu, HI 96813

Dear Mayor Caldwell:

Thank you for your une 24 letter seeking an extension of time for submittal of a Recovery Plan
for the Honolulu Rail Transit Project (Project). The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) is
amenable to an extension, but must insist that the City and County and the Honolulu Authority
for Rapid Transportation (HART) provide FTA with such a plan no later than the end of this
calendar year. Also, no later than the end of this August, HART and TA must meet to discuss
the immediate milestones and deliverables for an interim plan on how the Project will move
forward, and I will expect that plan by the end of September 2016.

Please recognize, FTA is obliged to protect the public?s very substantial investment in the
Project, thus we need to know the City and County?s intentions for resolving your planning,
engineering, and ?nancial issues as quickly as practicable.

For the future of the Project the City and County must make a fundamental choice to either
reduce the scope of the Project, consistent with the ?nancial resources currently available, or
seek additional, non-Federal resources suf?cient to complete the functional scope of work under
our Full Funding Grant Agreement of December 2012, or undertake some combination of these.
Your Recovery Plan'must then be based on your decision whether to reduce the Project scope or
seek additional, non-Federal resources, or both. Logically, your first step will be to identify a
range of viable options for cost containment, new investments in the Project, perhaps an interim
terminus or deferral of certain stations, and an analysis of the costs and estimated ridership
associated with each such option. As local deliberations continue, FTA cautions the City and
County to refrain from any procurements or other actions that would foreclose viable options for
maximizing Project bene?ts or prejudice decision on a Recovery Plan

My staff and I have several thoughts that should be discussed with HART during the month of
August. Mr. Leslie Rogers, FTA Region IX Administrator, will call you to make arrangements
- for that purpose.

Sincerely yours,

 

Carolyn lowers

Acting Administrator

cc: Mr. Dan Grabauskas
Mr. Leslie Rogers