Yoshioka currently serves as manager of transportation planning and traffic engineering and as senior supervising transportation engineer for PB Americas Inc., a city news release said. His appointment is effective Dec. 1.

While with PB Americas, Yoshioka, a professional engineer, was involved in the Honolulu High Capacity Transit Corridor Alternatives Analysis, which led to the adoption of a fixed guideway system for O'ahu mass transit, the release said.

He also was involved in the Primary Corridor Transportation Study, which examined alternative transit improvements for the Kapolei-to-Kahala corridor, and planning for a Pearl City bus facility, the release said.

"I'm thrilled that Wayne Yoshioka has accepted this very demanding and difficult responsibility," Mayor Mufi Hannemann said in the release.

"With nearly 30 years of professional engineering experience in all phases of traffic engineering and transportation planning, design, and construction, he'll bring the requisite capabilities we need as we move into the planning and design phase of our fixed-guideway system, expand our multimodal transportation network, and make improvements to our streets and traffic management."

Yoshioka, an Iolani School alumnus, earned his civil engineering degree from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. He has more than 29 years of work experience in project management and technical analyses of major transportation and engineering projects in Hawai'i, Colorado and California.

Yoshioka is taking over the department from Melvin Kaku, who will become director of the Department of Emergency Management on Dec. 1, the release said.