Honolulu Civil Beat - August 24, 2012
The Hawaii Supreme Court agreed yesterday with a woman who said the city and county of Honolulu should have completed its archeological surveys before starting any construction on its $5.26 billion heavy rail project.
The city performed some of this work with the intention of doing more later, and is already building columns for the 20-mile long rapid transit system.
Paulette Ka`anohi Kaleikini is a descendent of Native Hawaiians, and in her legal challenge to the Supreme Court said the city first should have accounted for burial grounds in downtown Honolulu and Kaka`ako.
The city, however, argued that it could do that work later since construction in that area wasn’t scheduled to occur until the fourth phase of the project. Construction is currently underway in West Oahu.
