Central Maui Transit Hub expected to get certificate of occupancy April 26

The Central Maui Transit Hub is expected to open this month, according to Department of Transportation Director Marc Takamori. The opening will end Maui Bus traffic within the Queen Kaʻahumanu Center.

In response to a request for a project update Wednesday during a Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee meeting, Takamori said his staff had a recent meeting with project contractors, and a certificate of occupancy is expected April 26, “or around that date.”

Takamori later clarified that the April 26 date for the certificate of occupancy relies on there being no further project delays. “The hub, if completed by then, won’t be immediately open to the public,” he said. “There will be a transition period that will happen, and the public will be notified of the opening date.”

The project is located off of Vevau Street near Kane Street in Kahului. It will replace the current transit hub on the Wailuku side of Queen Kaʻahumanu Center. Groundbreaking was held in February 2021.

The project is the first transit hub designed and built as a facility specifically for public bus transportation. It includes a ticket office, ADA accessible restrooms, shaded seating, bike racks, lighting and cans for trash and recycling.

In fiscal year 2020, the Maui Bus fixed route system had 1.37 million boardings. Work is expected to be completed by the end of the calendar year.

The County’s project partners were the State of Hawaiʻi, Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corp. and its project team including Fukumoto Engineering, Riecke Sunnland Kono Architects, Munekiyo Hiraga, West Maui Construction and Bowers+Kubota.

When asked by Lānaʻi Council Member Gabe Johnson about a feasibility study for the county’s operation of an inter-island ferry system, department Deputy Director Kauanoe Batangan said two bids were received after a request for proposals went out last year for work on the study.

A contractor has been selected, and the department is working to finalize the contract, he said. Both bids came under the amount budgeted for the project, so no additional funding is needed in fiscal 2025.

Batangan said the contractor is expected to have feasibility study findings ready for Council review before next year’s annual budget cycle.

When asked about the impact of the Aug. 8 wildfires on bus services, Batangan said bus rates and fees were suspended on Aug. 9 because county buses were being used for evacuations of residents and visitors from West Maui, and they were being deployed for non-emergency medical transports, volunteers and first responders.

“Ridership, predictably, decreased after the Aug. 8 wildfires and slowly started to creep back up,” he said.

Ridership returned to pre-wildfire levels in March, the same time that bus rates and fees were re-instated, Batangan said.

The department proposes spending $53.8 million in fiscal 2025, a decrease of 2.2%, or $1.2 million, from the current fiscal year.

The department’s fixed route bus service carried 1,276,817 passenger boardings in fiscal 2023, with an on-time performance of 97%, according to its budget submission. Ridership is expected to decline to 835,000 in fiscal 2024 and to 1,200,000 in fiscal 2025.

For commuter passenger boardings, the department reported serving 103,599 in fiscal 2023. It expects commuter ridership to increase to 185,000 in fiscal 2024 and fall to 104,000 in fiscal 2025.

Editor’s note: This story has been revised with a clarification on the expected opening of the transit hub.