University of Hawai'i engineering professor Panos Prevedouros has put his 18-year career on hold to run for mayor of the City and County of Honolulu. He said he intends to address issues ranging from the city's plan for a rail transit system to the condition of its roads.

Prevedouros announced his candidacy at a news conference yesterday at Honolulu Hale, where he filed his application papers.

"I'm delighted to be doing this," said Prevedouros, 47, who will run against Mayor Mufi Hannemann and a number of other contenders. "I think that it's important to have an alternative choice — to give people the choice."

Prevedouros, a well-known critic of the rail proposal, has questioned the city's ridership projections and has said that rail will have minimal impact on congestion.

With his engineering background, Prevedouros believes he can help Honolulu because his interest is in how roads are built, how traffic flows, how to synchronize traffic lights and how to build sewers and dumps that work. His plan for Honolulu focuses on the city's infrastructure.

"This city is deteriorating in front of our eyes," he said. "We need to work collectively and we need to fix it."

He called for stepped-up recycling efforts and for more spending on city roads.

Prevedouros said he believes the city is in a trash crisis, noting that trash will be exported starting next year. He said he wants to see more trash recycled as well as reused.

"We really do not locally reuse our trash," he said. "But there are production techniques in Japan and in Germany that you take in your trash and only 2 percent of it comes out as trash. The rest of it is totally recyclable such as compost, glass, plastic, metal and other byproducts that can be used in your construction process."

Prevedouros also intends to focus attention on city roads.

He called Hannemann's $77 million allocated for road repairs in 2009 "a puny, tiny, little amount" that will guarantee that the city will have the worst streets in the nation for a long time.

Prevedouros said he has no increases planned for sewer fees, which he said have risen enough.

He said he wants to address drug crime by working with the Honolulu Police Department's crime and drug section to see if resources are optimized and if they are getting all the federal support possible.

Other candidates for Honolulu mayor include James Brewer, Daniel Cunningham, Donavon Kambel, Jacqueline Maly and George Nitta. All have filed papers as of today. A full listing is at hawaii.gov/elections/candi dates/reports/candidate_ report.pdf.