Thirdly, back in ~2010, the State Historical Preservation Div. gave the City the thumbs up to treat the 4 phases of the rail project as 4 projects for completing archaeological surveys.  At the time, the City had completed surveys for the first 3 phases and was getting ready to do phase 4 (urban HNL).  Based on the direction of the State, the City decided to start construction on phase 1 rather than wait the 4-5 months it would take to survey phase 4. I didn't like that decision at the time because that opened the door for potential legal challenges, but the City thought it would save time and money.  This led to the lawsuits that shut construction down for 18 months and led to tens of $millions in change orders.  Even worse, that delay held up inking contracts for phase 3 and 4, and during that 18 month period Honolulu's construction market exploded along with labor and materials costs.  I think that single decision probably set HART back 3-4 years & may end up costing $1-2 billion.