The city has awarded a $9.7 million consultant contract to analyze Honolulu's mass transit alternatives and the environmental impact of such a project, which may cost billions of dollars and become one of Hawai'i's most ambitious public works ventures.

Ed Hirata, city transportation services director, told The Advertiser that the contract was awarded to Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, one of the nation's leading transportation engineering firms. The company worked on similar studies for Honolulu's last major attempt at transit, which ended in 1992.

Hirata said the federal government will provide $7.6 million and the city will pay $2.1 million for the alternatives analysis and draft environmental impact statement, which is expected to be complete by the end of next year.

The company will compare options including rail transit, expanded bus service and ferries. It will also come up with a short list of proposed routes and estimates of how many people will ride it, an official said.

The company worked on the H-3 Freeway and has been involved in transportation projects here and across the country for decades.

"They have a lot of experience with Honolulu projects," Hirata said. "I think that's a big advantage."

City spokesman Bill Brennan said the selection committee recommended the Parsons firm over the only other company that had expressed interest, Earth Tech Inc.

City Council Transportation Chairman Todd Apo said he knows the company's reputation in the transportation engineering community. "I think they have the credibility to do the work," he said.

Apo said he thinks a key to the planning process will be keeping it open to the public and making sure people know how they can participate in making this important decision.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann, a staunch supporter of mass transit, had vowed to move quickly on hiring the consultant to do the next step in the planning process. Last week, Hannemann signed into law a tax increase to pay for mass transit on O'ahu. Transit advocates have said a system would likely feature some kind of rail line to carry commuters from Kapolei into downtown and the University of Hawai'i-Manoa.

Hannemann has said construction of a new mass transit system could begin as early as 2009.

The new law allows the city to increase the state's 4 percent general excise tax to 4.5 percent beginning Jan. 1, 2007, through 2022. That tax increase is expected to cost each household on O'ahu $245 to $450 a year and raise about $150 million a year to help pay for the proposed mass-transit system.

At Parsons Brinckerhoff Quade & Douglas, project manager Richard Page said the company is pleased to have been awarded the contract. He said the transit planning study will be looking at expanded bus systems, ferries and fixed guideways as part of the analysis.

Page said the company, which has had a Hawai'i office since 1966, will provide a series of technical studies that examines the options available to easing traffic congestion. "The city will then be able to determine whether it looks like there's a feasible project," he said.

Hannemann and City Council members have made it clear that they want to have the analysis completed before the tax goes into effect, Page said.

Page said the company hopes to produce a preliminary list of alternatives by November that explores various routes and technology to carry people through the 22-mile corridor.

"We'll show several possible alignments, then we'll immediately proceed to looking at ridership and cost estimates," by spring, Page said. That means the company is likely to come up with eight to 10 possible routes, "then we'll try to narrow that down to three to five."

As they consider routes, they also will evaluate different types of transit since an elevated guideway dedicated to transit would have a different impact than an expanded bus system, a ferry system or a combination of both. By April, he said, the company will have come up with estimates of how much it would all cost and how many people would ride such a system.

Page said there will be many public meetings and other community outreach. "There will be lots of information that we will provide. We'll have a Web site. We'll be available to meet community groups and neighborhood boards," he said.

The company's national Web site indicates that Parsons projects have included Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel, Britain's rail system, the Sabiya power plant in Kuwait and Egypt's Metro.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.