A lull in lava activity is giving officials more time to test methods for re-establishing access over Highway 130 if it is covered by the June 27 flow.
A lull in lava activity is giving officials more time to test methods for re-establishing access over Highway 130 if it is covered by the June 27 flow.
As part of a field test, the state Department of Transportation today will place gravel on the lava flow covering Apa‘a Street to see how much insulation the material could provide if used as a road surface over cooling lava, Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira said.
But any solution won’t simply involve placing gravel atop hardened lava.
“Different ideas are being explored, realizing that restoration of the highway would be a definite benefit to returning the community to some form of normalcy,” Oliveira said.
“It is being considered, as well as some protective measure to prevent or minimize concerns for collapse. There’s a lot of engineering being done behind this … aggregate is one piece of a full-scale concept.”
Oliveira said county Civil Defense and Hawaiian Volcano Observatory staff will be present for the test, which won’t involve any vehicles.
Similar methods were used to re-establish access to Kalapana homes after flows there began to cool and harden, he said.
But Oliveira said he is not aware of that being done with “something as extensive as a highway,” and added the county also is looking at obtaining ground-penetrating radar to identify lava tubes and other hazards that would make it more difficult to rebuild a road over a hardened, or mostly hardened, flow.
Re-establishing the highway would help maintain a vital link between lower Puna and the rest of the island should the lava flow reach the sea.
The county is overseeing construction of an access route through Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the former Chain of Craters-Kalapana Road. That would be used if the flow severs other alternate routes on Railroad Avenue and Government Beach Road.
Access to the route likely would be limited to lower Puna residents, their family and guests, and necessary commercial activity, Cindy Orlando, park superintendent said Thursday.
To help manage the flow of traffic, she said a vehicle decal or some sort of pass is expected to be used.
Park staff also will likely be placed at the start of the emergency route to manage access, Orlando said.
“It really is intended to be an emergency access route for Puna residents and their invited guests,” she said, adding the park isn’t planning to allow access to other Big Island residents who don’t meet that criteria.
Orlando said maintaining the park’s portion of the access route and managing a significant increase in traffic through the park will cost about $1.7 million a year. A funding request will be made with the National Park Service to cover those costs.
“We don’t have the funding to do the maintenance and operation for this expanded route,” she said. “Our hope is to qualify and get (funding) from the federal highway emergency fund.”
On Thursday, the flow front remained stalled 480 feet from Pahoa Village Road while inflation, caused by lava intruding underneath the flow’s outer crust, and minor breakouts continued upslope.
Most of the activity was located about 0.7 to 1.5 miles above Apa‘a Street.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.