12-02-2014, 05:24 PM
No problem, AM!
Paul,
"Have they considered paving it? Or are they worried the amount of traffic would increase enormously, leading to more accidents?"
It was always the plan, decades ago, to pave the whole road to the summit. As you and probably others are aware, the top portion of the road is paved and I'm a little confused by Carey's recent comment of "Paving the upper portion is within the Mauna Kea Science Reserve Master Plan, most likely the main "roadblocks" are cost and access control [...]". Maybe I'm just reading that incorrectly, but the upper portion has been paved for a long time.
The paving certainly helps mitigate dust which is a real problem for the optical/IR telescopes, but as many found out shortly after that portion was paved, it made the road very dangerous during icy conditions. That has sort of been fixed by resurfacing with a more modern surface, but the pavement really does add to the danger when the weather is bad. Just about all the old and experienced telescope operators who do the driving in the evening, night and morning prefer the dirt road during those conditions. Most accidents I hear about during wintery conditions occur near the summit on the steepest parts of the paved road.
However, I've been led to believe that the lower portion of the road remains unpaved due to lack of funds, and suspect it will stay that way for a long time to come (it is the observatories who would have to pay for it, and it's not exactly cheap). I'm fairly sure it is not the the concern of increased traffic that has prevented the first few miles above Hale Pohaku being paved.
Leilanidude: I'm sure you're correct, but one thing I do remember the physicist saying is that the problem is with 2WD vehicle driving uphill. My own hypothesis is that once the ruts start forming they very quickly become worse. They cause tires to bounce, and since most vehicles drive up there at roughly the same speed, the bouncing wheels just end up making the ruts worse. It's almost a resonance effect. I haven't published my findings so far, so it hasn't gone through peer review!
Paul,
"Have they considered paving it? Or are they worried the amount of traffic would increase enormously, leading to more accidents?"
It was always the plan, decades ago, to pave the whole road to the summit. As you and probably others are aware, the top portion of the road is paved and I'm a little confused by Carey's recent comment of "Paving the upper portion is within the Mauna Kea Science Reserve Master Plan, most likely the main "roadblocks" are cost and access control [...]". Maybe I'm just reading that incorrectly, but the upper portion has been paved for a long time.
The paving certainly helps mitigate dust which is a real problem for the optical/IR telescopes, but as many found out shortly after that portion was paved, it made the road very dangerous during icy conditions. That has sort of been fixed by resurfacing with a more modern surface, but the pavement really does add to the danger when the weather is bad. Just about all the old and experienced telescope operators who do the driving in the evening, night and morning prefer the dirt road during those conditions. Most accidents I hear about during wintery conditions occur near the summit on the steepest parts of the paved road.
However, I've been led to believe that the lower portion of the road remains unpaved due to lack of funds, and suspect it will stay that way for a long time to come (it is the observatories who would have to pay for it, and it's not exactly cheap). I'm fairly sure it is not the the concern of increased traffic that has prevented the first few miles above Hale Pohaku being paved.
Leilanidude: I'm sure you're correct, but one thing I do remember the physicist saying is that the problem is with 2WD vehicle driving uphill. My own hypothesis is that once the ruts start forming they very quickly become worse. They cause tires to bounce, and since most vehicles drive up there at roughly the same speed, the bouncing wheels just end up making the ruts worse. It's almost a resonance effect. I haven't published my findings so far, so it hasn't gone through peer review!
