They Didn't Measure Twice

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is above the fold in most newspapers, but in the Honolulu Star Advertiser the lead was yet another in a long line of stories about the troubled rail project. [bold added]

O‘ahu’s rail was supposed to carry commuters from West O‘ahu’s suburbs to urban Honolulu by now. Instead, the 20-mile, 21-station project is only about 63% complete.

Its costs have more than doubled since the City and County of Honolulu signed an agreement in 2012 with the Federal Transit Administration to build the project for $5.122 billion, and it’s now estimated the full system won’t be operational until March 2031 – 11 years later than promised in that agreement.

The latest snafu concerns a "mismatch" between the width of the train wheels and the tracks:

The gap between rail tracks is too narrow by less than one-eighth of an inch leading into at least five spots where the trains cross onto different tracks...

There are two main ideas to fix the mismatch, including unbolting the track that leads into the frogs and then “(sliding) them over slightly,” then re-bolting the track — a process that could take weeks, [CEO and executive director, Honolulu Authority for Rapid Transportation Lori] Kahikina said.

Another idea would be to cut the problematic track, reweld and retest in a process that could take months and potentially cost “a couple thousand per cut,” she said...

But, Kahikina said, “Worstcase scenario, there could be a derailment,” but “there hasn’t been an issue.”

Board member Jade Butay, director of the state Department of Transportation, asked Kahikina how the problem was just discovered when the track was installed years ago.

“It could be all the way back from the design to the manufacture to the installation … and our own inspection,” Kahikina said. “Right now the main focus is, What is the extent of the issue, and how can we fix it? … Why wasn’t this found sooner? Very good question, and we’re asking the same thing.”

Matching the width of the tracks to the car wheels, and having the width be consistent over the entire system has been a basic principle of rail transportation for almost 200 years. The "gauge" is not a trivial issue, because the engineering needs to be precise and the gauge was not originally standardized. With thousands of miles of incompatible track, it took half a century for the American gauge to be fixed around the Stephenson standard of four feet, eight-and-a-half inches wide, which some claim dates back to ancient Rome(!).

And why does it cost "thousands of dollars" per cut to fix? Below is a video of welding tracks in Sweden.

Remember, dear reader, to measure twice, and cut once.