City to Hold Rail Station Community Workshops

The City and County of Honolulu will hold a series of workshops this spring and summer to educate communities from Kapolei to Waipahu about rail stations to be built along the transit route and seek public input on the appearance of the seven stations in their area.

The first of three community workshops for planned rail stations in Waipahu will be held on Tuesday, April 14 from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Waipahu Intermediate School, 94-455 Farrington Highway.

The two Waipahu stations will be located at West Loch at the intersection of Farrington Highway and Leoku Street, and the Waipahu Transit Center at the intersection of Farrington Highway and Mokuola Street. Two other Waipahu workshops are scheduled for later this summer to follow-up with residents.

“We welcome residents in each community to attend these workshops and contribute to the look and feel of the transit stations on aspects such as colors, landscaping and material finishes,” said Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann. “The communities will be among the primary users of these stations, so we encourage residents’ feedback on how the transit stop design can best reflect their area.”

The areas of the station to be discussed are the ‘touch down’ sections where the elevated portions of the stations meet the ground level, Hannemann said. Some of the categories include color, landscaping, entryway design, exterior and interior wall finishes, seating areas, and plaques and monuments for the station.

Hannemann noted that more than a dozen local architecture firms are working on rail stations, and that a design guidebook has been developed by Dan Chun, a noted local architect and past president of the Honolulu chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Similar community-based workshops will be held later this spring for rail transit stations planned for the West Oahu area (East Kapolei, UH West Oahu and Hoopili area) and at Leeward Community College. All scheduled meetings will be from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The initial 6.5-mile segment of the transit route will run from Kapolei to Pearl Highlands near Leeward Community College. The city is scheduled to break ground for the rail project at the end of the year and begin service for the first leg of the transit route in 2013.

For more information on the community workshops, contact the project office at 566-2299 or at infor@honolulutransit.org.

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