Honolulu Rail Appeal Will Stream From SF

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) - The 9th Circuit said it will stream the highly anticipated hearing set for San Francisco this week on a Honolulu rail project.

The case of Honolulutraffic.com v. FTA is slated for oral arguments this Thursday in San Francisco at 2 p.m. local time, but the 9th Circuit said the hearing will also be streaming live at the federal courthouse in Honolulu, Hawaii, where the time is three hours behind.

"Citizens in the Honolulu area can observe the proceedings in the Aha Nonoi courtroom on the fourth floor of the Prince Jonah Kûhiô Kalaniana`ole U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building, 300 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu," the court said in a Monday statement.

Judges Stephen Reinhardt and Andrew Hurwitz will sit on the panel with Senior Circuit Judge Mary Schroeder.

In a 2011 complaint, Honolulutraffic.com, Hawaii's Thousand Friends, the Small Business Hawaii Entrepreneurial Foundation, former Gov. Benjamin Cayetano and others sued the Federal Transit Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the city and county of Honolulu, and several officials.

They claim that the planned 20-mile-long, $5.3 billion elevated mass transit system, which would connect several of the city's historic, tourist and business districts with suburban neighborhoods, will destroy "natural, historic, and cultural resources (including Native Hawaiian burials) and creat[e] a massive new four-story concrete barrier along the way."

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