Major Scientific Evidence Shows Honolulu's Rail Route A Planning Fiasco

by John Bond

A Category 3-4 hurricane storm will drive 20-30 ft. of sea water inland along Oahu's south shores. This could happen within a 12-24 hour time period and could do everything Sea Level Rise (SLR) will accomplish in the coming decades. This scenario is actually predicted by FEMA as likely for Honolulu at anytime into the future decades.

Each year of SLR will only push the future hurricane storm surge further inland. On top of SLR, there is groundwater inundation creeping up year after year which brings water much further inland.

Storm surge will create massive damage hundreds of yards inland to sewer, water and electrical systems, shutting down the Sand Island Waste Water treatment plant and depositing massive amounts of raw sewage around downtown areas. Honolulu Airport's reef runway would likely be destroyed. Tourism will come to a complete stop.

Just think about that - no airport and raw sewage everywhere with a totally useless and shut down railway system. No Civil Defense planning at all has been done for this incredibly likely future scenario!

Not only will rail be shut down and totally useless after hurricane storm surge, it will likely take many months to get the infrastructure around the stations back up to operational status. (Maybe this is why we will need bike lanes?)

This all could have been avoided by a rail route further inland, such as along H-1, away from ALL of these problems! And WHY wasn't this done? Because rail is a real estate project, not a commuter transportation system! This is an DOT-FTA financed real estate project.

This is why the truth will come out in the future and the fiasco of very bad rail route planning will be exposed for all to see. Billions more will have to be spent (which is apparently the intent of this bad plan?)

Meanwhile, groundwater inundation and land subsidence is currently underway and it is totally ignored by the City, HART and so called HCDA urban planners in low-lying coastal areas such as Kakaako and the south shoreline where 5-6 other rail stations will be located.

Kakaako and the south shore of Oahu will be experience increasing persistent flooding due to the rise of the ground water table that sits atop sea level (lighter fresh water lens). All our urban and rail "planners" totally ignore this scientific fact and eventuality. How could so much money be spent on such incredibly bad planning?

From Nature: Assessment of groundwater inundation as a consequence of sea-level rise:

"0.6 m of potential sea-level rise causes substantial flooding, and 1 m sea-level rise inundates 10% of a 1-km wide heavily urbanized coastal zone. The flooded area including groundwater inundation is more than twice the area of marine inundation alone."

"This has consequences for decision-makers, resource managers and urban planners, and may be applicable to many low-lying coastal areas."

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