Skyline Segment 3 (City Center Guideway and Stations)

Alignment

Segment 3, which HART calls the City Center Guideway and Stations (CCGS) project, completes Honolulu’s driverless Skyline metro. It adds about 3 miles of elevated guideway east from the current terminus at Kahauiki (Middle Street–Kalihi Transit Center). The guideway follows Dillingham Boulevard past Kalihi and Honolulu Community College stations to Iwilei, turns down Nimitz Highway along the harbor to Chinatown (near Kekaulike Street) and Downtown stations, and then runs along Halekauwila Street to a terminus at Civic Center (Kaʻākaukukui) near South Street in Kakaʻako. The guideway sits on 148 columns, each on a drilled shaft more than 100 feet deep.

When the segment opens, Skyline will run 18.9 miles from East Kapolei to Kakaʻako. The original plan ran about a mile farther, to Ala Moana Center. HART’s 2022 recovery plan and the amended federal Full Funding Grant Agreement cut the line back to a temporary end at Civic Center. Tutor Perini holds the $1.66 billion design-build contract for the guideway and stations, and Hitachi holds the core systems contract.

Updates

2026-09 — City Center segment reported 15% complete

HART’s preliminary FY2028 budget lists the City Center Guideway and Stations contract at $1.66B and reports it as 15% complete. The agency plans to spend $425M on it in FY2028 and $380.5M the following year. The budget puts the federally funded project’s total estimated cost at about $9.57B before financing.

2026-08 — First pier cap installed downtown

Crews installed the first pier cap on a guideway column along Nimitz Highway near Fort Street. Separately, a HART risk analysis shared with the FTA’s oversight consultant suggested the project’s total cost could reach $10.19B, about $111M above the official $10.079B budget. HART says the higher figure reflects risk, not firm costs.

2026-07 — FTA consultant says opening likely slips to 2032

Hill International, the FTA’s oversight consultant, put a 65% probability on the Middle Street–Kakaʻako segment not opening until spring 2032, about a year behind HART’s March 31, 2031 target. It cited late downtown utility relocation, Tutor Perini’s late start and stuck shaft casings, and Hitachi design changes. The same month, the HART board approved a $53M change order to Hitachi’s core systems contract, which rose from $1.726B to $1.779B. HART says it has made no official schedule change.

2026-04 — First Segment 3 column completed

HART completed Pier 732 near Nimitz Highway and Fort Street, the first of 148 columns for Segment 3, with 17 column foundations finished. Foundation work also began at Chinatown station. HART then expected guideway and station construction to finish in 2030 and passenger service to start by summer 2031.

2025-10 — Segment 2 opens to Middle Street

Segment 2 opened on October 16, 2025, adding the stations from Makalapa to Kahauiki (Middle Street–Kalihi Transit Center). That left Segment 3 as the only unbuilt section of the line.

2025-08 — Groundbreaking at Civic Center

HART held a blessing and groundbreaking at the future Kaʻākaukukui (Civic Center) station site in Kakaʻako. Work began in the Iwilei area by drilling shafts for the guideway columns, with construction expected to finish in 2030.

2024-08 — $1.66B contract awarded to Tutor Perini

HART awarded the design-build contract for the City Center Guideway and Stations to Tutor Perini. Civil Beat later reported that Tutor Perini was the only bidder and that its price was about $550M above HART’s expectation. The project also expected an additional $250M in federal funding under an amended Full Funding Grant Agreement.