Several months after Honolulu’s Skyline rail transit system opened for service, problematic “defects” were discovered at key points along the track from early wear-and-tear, according to inspection reports and emails from a track safety official who later left the job.

That “spalling and flaking” — basically surface cracking and chipping — was found last fall at the track crossings near Skyline’s Kualaka‘i (East Kapolei) and Kalauao (Pearlridge) stations, part of the nearly 11-mile stretch that opened June 30. 

A former consultant and track expert who worked on the project said it’s premature for such damage to appear.

More spalling and flaking was found in November on the straight track between the Halaulani (Leeward Community College) and Waiawa (Pearl Highlands) stations, according to Patrick Preusser, the city’s rapid transit director.

Crews have already repaired the track damage with grinding, and officials with Hitachi Rail are still trying to determine its root cause, Preusser said. The city anticipates that analysis to be done by April.

The damage’s emergence points to “long term” track issues that should be addressed to avoid potential maintenance and safety problems in the future, Yifeng Mao, the Department of Transportation Services’ former track compliance officer, told a DTS colleague via email last fall. 

The “Long Term issue is still there,” Mao wrote to Safety Systems Manager Oscar Figueroa on Oct. 19, responding to Figueroa’s email asking whether the problem had been fixed. Mao said it “still is a serious concern that may adversely impact the service.” 

Civil Beat obtained Mao’s reports and his email exchange with Figueroa via a public records request to the city. Mao could not be reached for comment. His LinkedIn profile shows he left the city in October and now works for Sound Transit in Seattle.

Mao’s concerns come to light after several employees and consultants on the Skyline project in recent years expressed their own misgivings about the system’s unusual track crossing design and the narrow track tolerances that accompany it. 

Despite those concerns from some of the rank-and-file workers on the project, their bosses at both DTS and the Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation, which is building Skyline, have repeatedly said they find no reason to change the track design.

Most recently, Preusser said via email last month that “no data has been presented to date” to show that the tracks’ flaking and spalling is caused by its design. Thus, there’s been no discussion of changing it, he added.

In Mao’s fall inspection reports, he “strongly” recommended that rail crews monitor the areas with the track defects on a weekly basis to check that the conditions there don’t get worse. He also recommended that rail officials secure the proper spare parts in case the tracks need to be replaced. That way, they might reduce the risk of potential service interruptions. 

Preusser said that Hitachi monitors the tracks for wear-and-tear as part of its weekly inspections and that the rail contractor has started the process of getting spare parts such as stock rails and switch points. 

It’s expected to take between eight months and a year for those parts to arrive, according to city officials.

Too Much Stress

Hitachi thinks an excessive accumulation of grease found where the damage occurred might be a factor in what’s causing the problem, according to Mao’s reports and Preusser.

Whatever its root cause winds up being, the damage is related to fatigue and stress where the train wheels run across the track, according to the inspection reports. 

“Seeing something like this this early in revenue service is not usual,” said David Walker, a track expert and former consultant who helped build the Honolulu rail system near the airport. “It’s something that’s happening that should not be happening this early.”

Walker worked on rail as a track consultant for the firm Stantec from 2020 to 2022. During his tenure, he clashed with HART and other consultants over their decision to use so-called “flange-bearing frogs” at Skyline’s track crossings and to keep those components in the system even after they caused problems and delays.

Using flange-bearing frogs instead of tread-bearing ones, he said, will likely cost taxpayers heavily for added maintenance to keep the system safe and reliable over time.

HART’s top leaders, Executive Director Lori Kahikina and Chief Operations Officer Rick Keene, dismissed Walker’s concerns in 2022 as “the opinions of one individual” even though it was later revealed that separate track specialists outside of Stantec shared his misgivings over the frogs.

Walker, who’s now retired, has not inspected the damage in Mao’s reports. But he said that kind of wear is caused when the gauge of the wheels and the gauge on the side of the rail are not properly aligned, causing heightened friction. 

He has previously called out the project for having a track layout that doesn’t follow industry standards and tolerances that are too tight where the tracks cross paths.

Read Mao’s inspection reports here: