 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Aloha, I'm Movie Handelman. Welcome again to Tourism 101 here on Think Tech as we bring you issues that have a strong relationship to our tourism industry. Today, our guest is Andrew Robbins, the Chief Executive Officer of the Honolulu Authority Rapid Transit. Yes, rail has been around for a long time and of course you always have people that want to see it occur and then those who have some questions and concerns. Today we're going to go right to the gentleman who's on the hot seat to ensure that there is a completion to this project since the decision has already been made and is working hard each and every day. Welcome. Thank you very much. Pleasure to be here. You know, you may be new to this job relatively speaking but certainly you're not new to the islands. Can you tell us a little bit about your relationship and history with Hawaii? Sure. And you're correct. I think I made my first trip here in 1990 and I became the project manager on the last go around for rail, which was occurring in the early 90s and I relocated here to work on the project and although the project did not proceed at that time, I did meet my wife and as a result I've been connected to the islands ever since. Your wife is from here? She spent many, many years here. She's been here, although she did not grow up here, she has been here for well over 30 years. So you have relatives here? I do. I have extended family here and my son was born here as well. Oh, okay. Very good. Now what brought you back to the islands to take on a job that is not easy? Well I've had a long career in the private sector and as I mentioned I was here in the early 90s as a project manager for the consortium that had won the contract at that time to build the rail and then I came back in the 2000s when you were mayor, you reinvigorated the project and started the process up again so I came back again as a member of the private sector looking to get involved in the project from that side. So when you left Honolulu, after the project was starting to move forward and your company was then assigned you someplace else, what were you doing in the interim period between the time you came back to Honolulu and when you left? Right. Well I had many different opportunities with my company at the time as a project manager, as a project engineer, and also in the business development area. So I spent a lot of time actually around the world in different parts of the world working on various projects similar to those projects. Well for example, some of my key experiences were in Singapore where we started up a driverless light rail system similar to what we're doing here. That was a really special moment for me in my career working in Singapore with a very forward thinking government. I also lived in Hong Kong for three years where I was responsible for projects throughout Asia but particularly in mainland China and so that again was another fantastic experience and I was always involved in rail transit all these years. But why don't we drill down and talk specifically because you're in the construction phase now. Tell us a little bit about your background in construction management and overseeing construction projects of a traffic system or rail system. Right. Well first of all my education was always geared to this type of work. I'm an electrical engineer by training but then I specialized in my master's program in the management of large construction and engineering projects. So I really had a background educationally in this field and then as I started my career and continued it in my career in the rail transit industry I was in all phases of project management, project engineering, business development. So I really had a good background in terms of not only the construction of these projects but the development of these projects, the economics, finance, you know various aspects of how a project like this comes together, how you construct it and very importantly how do you start the project up, get it ready for operations, all of the technology that overlays on top of the concrete and steel part of the project is very important. And that's where we are right now here on the Honolulu Project. You know, Andy, every mayor since Neil Blaisdell, Blaisdell, Frank Fosse, myself, Jeremy Harris, my two successors, Peter Carlo and Kirk Hallwell, somehow I've always been fixated on doing a rail transit system. Why is it going to be different this time, that we're actually going to cross the goal line in your estimation? Well first of all I think you all were fixated on it because we have a perfect corridor for a major rail transit project here on Oahu, between the mountains and the ocean, where the majority of the population lives, where the majority of the employment is just a natural corridor and I know it was planned that way over many, many years on Oahu so it really just made sense that there needed to be this high capacity transit solution to complement the very fine bus service that we have here. So it was important to have a champion such as yourself to get that project off the ground and up and running. I think, you know, one of the things that we've learned when I came back on this project about a year and a half ago, there were many issues in terms of really just as I mentioned project management, construction. We've learned a lot of lessons from the initial construction aspects of the project in the West. We've taken those lessons forward and we're applying them as we come through the airport area now and now as we come into the city center area we're applying a lot of lessons learned and things that we should be doing and we're managing the project I think much more effectively now going forward. So I guess what you're saying is that there really is no other option given the fact that we have a very, we have a linear route. It's tailor-made for something like this we can't really expand towards the ocean or the sea. So let's talk about costs and that's on everybody's mind, you know, that when they read about, you know, seemingly the cost is rising again but I know in your opinion you have a very different take because you've inherited a lot of those issues and you've tried to resolve whether it's settlements, whether exchange orders, cost over and so on. Talk a little bit about that. Okay, sure. Well when I started in September 2017 it was actually the same day that the special session of legislature had ended and the governor and the mayor were signing the bills that authorized the additional funding that the project needed to be completed to Alabama. So it was a very important day for me to be starting. Talk about walking right into the Friday. Right into it and the message was very clear, you know, here's the funding you need make it work and I'm a very serious guy so I took that very seriously and I think as I looked at the situation the one thing that was missing really as an answer back from the authority was there wasn't any certainty that was being told to the elected officials, you know, it was very uncertain and, you know, you get a large project like this, there is an element of risk and you can't escape that but you have to learn how to manage risk and I think that's where we put a lot of energy really starting with my immediate predecessor Christiania Murthy and then I carried it forward in terms of putting a much more effective risk management program in place to create more certainty so that we would live within our means on the budget and we would meet our commitments on the schedule. So for the person out there just kind of listening to somebody explain what you mean by risk management practices. Okay so one of the things that we needed to do much more effectively was first of all to identify all of the risks that we would face on the project and it sounds impossible but it really isn't if you put together strong workshops of people that are across section of the project contractors, engineers, staff and consultants you really can start to identify all of the risks that you will face on the project and then once we have that identified we can put expected costs for each of the elements of the project as well as a risk provision so if we do have an issue that we have to spend more money on a particular task we have a provision for that and then we also have an element of unallocated contingency for the unknowns that issues that we have not identified and we run that all through a very big analysis, a risk management analysis so that essentially the idea is if you overrun in one area you underrun in another area or you inform management about how you can take action to mitigate risk or to avoid risk and by doing these things you can actually start to control your budget and your schedule for two years now we have been on budget on schedule we have not asked for any more additional funding and I think the process is working and we'll continue to work towards it. So why does the media keep emphasizing that whenever there's another figure financially speed come out of rail that the cost is continuing to increase why is that? Well the process if you will of managing or dealing with the cost overruns materializes in something called a change order so we've given an instruction and a contract to a contractor for so much money something happened where we had to spend more money on that particular contract eventually we have to issue change orders so unfortunately we're in a position where every change order is reported as if it's an increase to the budget but we've already provisioned for these change orders meaning that it's already in our budget and as long as we manage effectively as I just mentioned even though we have to issue change orders which cleans up the paperwork so to speak we're still within our budget. I signed off on only one contract of the series of contracts you put up to start the project but I know there was a significant change order that you came to some kind of settlement recently with Unsaldo. Can you talk about that? Right well Unsaldo has a very unique contract it's what we call our core systems contract so supplying the trains the controls really all the technology for the project is their responsibility they manufacture the equipment they have to install the equipment on site then they have to test everything and eventually put it into service and do the operations and maintenance so it's a very comprehensive contract and it was done as what we call a lump sum contract. What year was that contract signed? Around 2011 I believe it's when the contract was executed. Peter Colla was a mayor then. Right so they bid lump sum and they bid to a certain timeline some eight years ago obviously the timeline has changed so now we have to remedy their contract and and realize the fact that the timeline has changed they were delayed but you know even though they were delayed there are things they should have been doing and could have been doing even though there were certain construction delays for example supplying the trains are not really affected by construction delays so we had to negotiate with Unsaldo and deal with what we call concurrent delays and also delays that are not of their doing and we were able to have a willing partner and Unsaldo to have a very effective negotiation and we were able to conclude that a couple of weeks ago with what I think was a very amicable settlement in terms of the delays that were incurred over the life of the project so far. So you're able to do really achievement well two things I take away from what you're saying here one that you already had that set aside in your budget to handle these type of situation but the city could have paid a whole lot more had you not engaged on Soldo in a conversation in a discussion to reach an amicable settlement. That's exactly right it was all provisioned our settlement was well within our budget so it's well within the 8.165 billion that we're managing to and I don't think we would have gotten there without a willing partnership this is something that I've really tried to foster since I've come here probably has to do with my private sector experience where you know I understand the pressures on the contractors as well so we try to sit down we try to understand that we're really partners in this to be successful on this project we have to work together we the authority don't actually build anything our partners do so I've worked on those relationships and when you have willing partners come to the table you can reach a meeting in the minds and come up with an effective solution. Our guest is Andy Robbins we are talking about rail in all things rail we're going to take a short pause for the cause and when we come back we're going to drill down on how this system will benefit our number one industry in Hawaii I'm talking about tourism I'm Mofi Haneman I guess this morning again is Andrew Robbins the chief executive officer of heart. This is Think Tech Hawaii raising public awareness. Aloha I'm Tim Apachella I'm here with Cynthia Sinclair and this is Trump week it's going to appear every Friday at 11 a.m. between Jay Fidel Cynthia and myself we talked about Trump the activities and the news stories for that week as it pertains to the Trump administration we hope you tune in and watch the fun. Aloha. See you then. How's it everybody welcome again to Think Tech here on tourism 101. Andy you know people think that that's such a difficult job a lot of it weighs on you each and every day but I know what made you really depressed these past few weeks your Pittsburgh Steelers got knocked out and you are a rabbit Steelers fan and of course I had to tease you because I met Juju Schuster right you know a star wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers and I sent you a picture of me and Juju because he was here for the apology football hall of fame you are I think besides you and the lieutenant governor you had the two most rabid Pittsburgh Steelers fan what's your connection to Pittsburgh. Well I I moved there after college to start my career with what a company called Westinghouse Electric at the time which was headquartered there and you can't spend two weeks in Pittsburgh without adopting the Steelers I arrived at Giants fan and within two weeks I was black and gold but I'm happy to say that Pittsburgh people are involved in this project and Saldos US headquarters is in Pittsburgh so we have a lot of hard-working Pittsburgh people contributing to this project. Have you converted your son who's quite an athlete into being a Steelers fan also because I want him I want him to be a Kansas City Chiefs Patrick Mahomes. No I'm sorry he's black and yellow. Got to work on that. So let's talk about how rail relates to the tourism industry and why you believe this will benefit on the state's number one provider of jobs. Okay sure first of all if we look at the employees you know the backbone of the visitor industry so many employees live in the western parts of the island whether it be well starting in Kalihi Waipahu, Evapeech and other communities in the west so many of them live there and they're dealing with the daily commute back and forth to work and then when they get to work they have to deal with parking. We're gonna have a rail system that really benefits employees for the visitor industry goes right through Waipahu serves Evapeech and out to Kapalei so I think you know it's really going to transform lives people will be able to get an extra hour or even two hours of sleep in the morning because they'll have predictable transportation available to them with the rail project so I think that's a major benefit but from the visitor side as well I mean we I've been on certain parts of our system already and the views are outstanding first of all I think people are really going to enjoy some of the some of the views that they'll be able to get from the rail system but you know really beyond that and I think one of the untold stories so far the rail system is the storytelling that we're trying to do at our various stations and you know Hawaiian people are storytellers by nature and we're incorporating these stories into the station starting with the station names which will be Hawaiian names that tell a little bit about where the station is located we have Hawaiian art which also contributes to storytelling and then we'll have various information plaques within the station so I think visitors as they use the rail system they'll be able to learn more about the history of this island and the history of the people that were here on this island talk about what I've often learned about this integrated multimodal system and how a worker will be able to utilize the system I mean and I think that's one of the options I think that's out there having rail really enhances that person's choices when he or she is coming into a town or Waikiki for employment right well first of all you we talked about the nature of the rail system being the backbone the high capacity backbone of the transportation system on this island but it needs to be integrated with other modes of transportation so for example the bus system which is an award-winning bus system we'll be able and we're working very hard with the city right now to make sure that it's fully integrated that the bus will and the rail will work well together even for our interim service which we intend to open up in 2020 we're working hard with the city to make sure that the two systems work very well together and people can get from where they're starting their trip to where they need to go effectively conveniently comfortably but beyond even rail and bus you know we have a we have an excellent biky bike share program that I use myself and that that will be integrated as well so you'll be able to use one fare card if you will whether you ride on the rail whether you ride on the bus or you want to use a biky and that's called the holo card right the holo card is being introduced right now with heart and the city and we're testing it already on the bus that'll benefit rail because we'll have it fully tested and working on the bus system by the time the rail starts up in 2020 so if I'm living in Kapolei or Ewa Beach you know I could take the bus to the station take the train in get off the train get on a bike or walk go to a certain point and then turn around and do the same thing or or if you're driving into town and you see that traffic congestion is taking place once again or there's an accident because it's at great you can actually park your car jump on the station and come into town that's right and where the goal is to make that all a predictable journey so you can count on that journey each and every day you know exactly how much time you need for transportation to get to and from your destination so I think that's going to be a major improvement in the quality of life for for people that live here based on the unpredictability you have today when you get on the freeway and you don't know exactly what's going to happen too quick question so I've said you know you don't have to do rail we have an excellent bus service why don't we just expand the bus service and have more buses what's your answer to that I think two issues with that one is that we need more capacity so are we going to really build more roads and freeways to make the bus more effective my understanding is that the average speed of the bus has gone down in recent years because bus gets stuck in traffic like everybody else so I think that's one issue and then over a longer journey rail is actually a more cost effective mode of transportation so if you want to manage your overall cost to have a rail bus solution when you get into the kind of passenger moving capacities that we need on this island it's more effective than an all-bus system you know some have said you know we're not going to have a lot of people riding the rail initially so they fear the fact that we spent all this money get when it starts everybody's still in their comfort zone driving their cars how do you respond to that well I can tell you that probably one of our biggest worries is what if we have more riders than we expect so working together with the city we're already planning for what happens and how we can respond if our ridership is higher I think yes we have a car culture here but we also have a very high ridership on our bus system in our public transportation system so we know we have built-in ridership we know we have demand for public transportation and you know even with the introduction of ride sharing services like uber lift you know the people are looking at the cost of their trip where I think uber lift will really contribute is that what we call our first mile last mile connectivity from and to our transit stations it's all going to work together and rail is an important element in that comprehensive solution so Andy also talk about the fact that as people have continuing concerns it'll probably happen to the day you actually start service how seriously do you take community involvement community participation people coming forward and sharing their monologue especially as it affects those where the rail system is coming through well community participation is essential really to everything we do we have a public involvement team that goes out every day and we describe our impacts that construction will have on people we provide information on the system what the benefits of the system are how to use the system and we're really looking for feedback to when we are out with the community whether it's feedback from the community feedback from businesses because we can work around issues so for example if if there's a community fair in a particular location on a particular weekend we don't have to be working in that particular location we can work around those things same with businesses if businesses are having a sale on a on a Saturday we'll make sure that we can work around and not not inhibit access to that business so the two-way dialogue with the community really is essential in a project like this you know I've always said if you like rail you're gonna love transit oriented development in my experience as mayor nothing was moving in kakaako until we said rail is coming through I think the same will happen for colleagues so touch on TOD and touch on the concept that you're really driving called P3 public private partnership where you're going to lure an enticed private sector the private sector put in monies into this project so we're just not totally relying on public dollars okay a lot there but on TOD transit oriented development we're working closely with the city I think the city has come out with and the state for that matter both have really excellent TOD plans around each of the 21 stations and we're working with the city in the state to to start moving these plans into implementation the you know that the rail system is more than just a mobility solution it will address affordable housing it will relate to workforce housing things like that Kalihi for example is a fantastic neighborhood so conveniently located and so much opportunity for workforce housing for example close to a station and you know if you think about it families that have two three four automobiles if they can get rid of even one automobile the savings are in the thousands of dollars and I think once rail is introduced as an alternative means to get to work to get to other places I think families will say what about P3 I don't need two three cars you know P3 is again it's public private partnership it's something that we wanted to look at as a global best practice on how we could complete the project we still have over a billion dollars worth of work to do especially in the city center portion of the project and then we also are looking at long-term operations and maintenance going back to what I said about creating certainty living within our means we believe that P3 offered an opportunity to achieve those goals and we're very encouraged by our dialogue with industry in terms of them being able to respond to our needs to not only build the remaining part of our project but to operate it successfully over the next 30 years and we want to make sure once we we finish this project that it's it's sustainable it's clean comfortable and safe over the long term and that's why we're one last question you touched on it interim service to begin in 2020 very focused on that we have 10 miles of of our guideway completed in the west we're rapidly completing our first nine stations we have an saldo mobilized by getting the technology installed and tested we want to get the system up and running for those first 10 miles and start to get people onto the system so that you know people have suffered through a lot of bad news on this project construction impact it's time to get people on these trains and start to demonstrate some of the benefits and how this can improve their lives I yeah the best is yet to come Andrew thank you for being here this morning thank you for joining us this is your host for tourism 101 I guess this morning has been Andrew Robbins and I hope that he in sharing his banal with us as part of this very important project he helped shed light on some of the things that are going on and most importantly the dedicated commitment he has made he and his staff his hard-working staff at heart to ensure a successful completion of this project mahalo a lot careful thank you for joining us