Whatever your views on mass transit, you have to be impressed by Mayor Mufi Hannemann's political skills in bringing the massive project this far in so short a time.

At Kapolei Hale Saturday, Hannemann signed a law passed by the City Council last month authorizing a transit system from Kapolei to Honolulu that could cost more than $5 billion — by far the most expensive public works project in Hawai'i's history.

From a dead start when he was sworn into office two years ago, he's brought transit farther than any other mayor has in the 40 years the issue has been on the city's agenda.

What's remarkable is the way Hannemann put the project on a fast track from the beginning of his administration, then kept it on the schedule he set virtually every step of the way.

In 2005, he persuaded the Legislature and a reluctant Gov. Linda Lingle to authorize a half-cent increase in the general excise tax on O'ahu to pay for transit, then got the City Council to enact the tax.

Last year, he initiated a $10 million study that recommended a fixed-guideway line of up to 30 miles as the best alternative to ease O'ahu's traffic congestion, and got a divided council to approve the plan pretty much the way he wanted it — all before the new tax took effect on Jan. 1.

The swift action clears the way for the city to seek federal funding to help pay for O'ahu transit.

Transit supporters hail Hannemann as a visionary, while opponents cry foul about political strong-arming, and raise legitimate concerns about how much transit will really ease traffic, whether O'ahu's tax base can afford it and if it's necessary to collect the increased excise tax before an environmental impact study is completed and federal approval is obtained.

However you feel about those questions, if setting an agenda and getting it done is the measure of an effective public official, you have to give the mayor credit for meeting that standard in an impressive way.

Hannemann is keeping transit on a fast track, with plans calling for picking by February a more precise alignment and the "minimal operating segment" to be built first, then starting preliminary engineering by June to determine the best possible technology.

Under his ambitious timetable, construction would begin in 2009, and the first segment would be running by 2012, which would be the last year of Hannemann's second term if he's reelected.

Going from nothing to a functional system in eight years would be nothing short of miraculous, but it's a long way from here to there — and the road only gets more difficult as the devilish details are worked out.

It's especially important that time and care be taken with land-use planning around the transit system.

There's big money at stake, and there will be big politicking by powerful interests over route alignment, land acquisition, development rights around the transit stations, contracting, choice of equipment and the method of operating the completed system.

The city has little control over the pace or outcome of federal deliberations and will have to find additional sources of funding to build more than a minimally useful transit line that stops short of the University of Hawai'i and Waikiki.

Opponents of mass transit haven't given up, and will continue their fight through federal funding deliberations and development of an EIS.

Hannemann's best chance of pulling it off is to make sure the process plays out openly and honestly at every step of the way — and is fully transparent to public scrutiny, no matter how inconvenient that might be to his timetable.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached by e-mail at dave@volcanicash.net. Read his daily blog at blogs.honoluluadvertiser.com.