Five Facts about Kapolei

Flyover Traffic Rings

One in Athens, Greece connects two arteries to a freeway (Attica Tollway, top.)

The other in Shanghai, China removes pedestrians from a complex 5-approach roundabout (bottom.)

Circuit of the Americas: Racing to the Finish

"When in 2010 the city of Austin, Texas, was awarded the United States Grand Prix for 10 years, plans to construct the Formula 1 racetrack there, the Circuit of the Americas, quickly got under way, and an unlikely midsize civil engineering and surveying firm was awarded the civil engineering design contract."

This is a fascinating story of infrastructure development for a top flight world sporting event. Read this open article starting on page 64 of the Civil Engineering Magazine, May 2013 issue, of the American Society of Civil Engineers: Racing to the Finish.

Tesla Is Reinventing the Industrial and Infrastructure Process

Tesla is not only reinventing the car...  They are reinventing applied science, industrial product development and infrastructure planning.

At Toyota "we get a lot of standards and specifications, then we build a prototype and test it. At Tesla they get the standards and specifications set, and then change it on the fly. They spend more time in the validation phase. We spend more time in up-front planning.”

Typically we plan and design infrastructure (e.g., energy and transportation systems) too much. But rarely we go back and validate whether systems really worked as intended...

Unofficial assessments:

• Did the H-3 Freeway meet its traffic target?  It exceeded it.
• Did the Kal. Hwy widening relieve Hawaii Kai to Kahala trip times? Travel times were reduced by over ~25%.

Official assessments:

• Do modern (built after 1995) light and heavy rail systems in any city in the US meet or exceed their planned ridership that justified their construction, after 5 or10 years in operation?
• Nine out of 10 failed to do this. Several of them spectacularly. The largest US failure (after Tren Urbano in Puerto Rico) will be Honolulu.

No Jones Act Relief for Hawaii in 2013

May 22: 17 Prominent Hawaii economists, business leaders, and professors ask Congress to Repeal 1920s Law Preventing Foreign Competition in Shipping.

May 28: Should Hawaii Be Exempted From The Jones Act? Lawsuit Says Yes

May 30: Court Says No -- U.S. District Court in Hawaii dismisses lawsuit challenging applicability of Jones Act in Hawaii

June 5: It will take a few more years but some relaxation of Jones Act requirements for Alaska, Hawaii and Guam is inevitable.