Mayor Caldwell calls for special meeting over future of an already costly rail project

HONOLULU, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - Honolulu’s Mayor is calling for a Special Meeting to come up with a new plan to finish the rail project.

News the meeting request came Friday, just a day after the latest estimated price of the embattled project soared to nearly $10 billion.

The mayor wants to end the so-called P-3 negotiations for a private operator to build the final segment and run the system because the bids came in way over budget.

But the project CEO wants to stick with the private partner.

A board committee this week sided with the Mayor on the issue, but the full board isn’t scheduled to vote until Oct. 27. Mayor Caldwell feels that’s too late.

He wants to formally end the procurement process as soon as possible and come up with a new financial plan in hopes of preserving more than $250 million in federal funding.

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