Mauna Loa erupting

[My 2 cents]

"Thanks ironyak & AaronS for the links to historical references and planning information for Saddle Road.  I assumed the decision to site the road in it's current location was complex, but I had no idea how many factors and agencies were involved in the process.  After reading through that, we're lucky any agreement was reached, and any road was built at all."

I too find the history and progression of Saddle Road interesting.  Wikipedia has a few things.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_Route_200

Apparently the first official start of construction was in 1849, but was abandoned in 1859 due to the eruption in that year.  There’s no mention of what happened between 1859 and WWII.

While planning for the defense of the Hawaiian islands in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U. S. Army hastily built an access road in 1943 across the Humuʻula plateau[11] of Parker Ranch at 19°41′44″N 155°29′8″W.[12] Since it was not intended as a civilian road, the simple gravel path was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps and the US Army Corps of Engineers in case of an invasion.[13] Military vehicles of all types and treads traversed the Island for the next three years.

Clearly, the US Army simply got ‘er done as quickly as possible with no concern for how long it would last or whether anybody might question it’s path.  It was wartime, it wasn’t meant for us.

But the map that Ironyak provided shows a road (or trail?) in 1893.  So how did that get done?

I’m guessing that the original Saddle Road was formed by many independent people traveling the distance by foot or horseback over many years and arriving at a path of least resistance.  This process may have even started before 1849 project.  And by 1943 the path was probably pretty well established.

Am I close?

[TomK]

Can you point to the part in your link about not building the DKI slightly north and uphill of its current position at the old Mauna Kea Access Road junction?

This has been asked and answered multiple times already (it helps to actually read the thread before posting)

Well, just point to your answer and citations.

Posts 127-`130.   Essentially it was easier to build the road where it is now. Maybe your question is “why wasn’t it moved during upgrade”? Not sure that’s been completely addressed.

It hasn't been addressed. All I get are insults.

[AaronM]

Tom, what is the point of hounding people about their comments?

Just because you think that someone's post lacked the proper APA citation does not mean that you can elect yourself as their professor. You're not grading papers and nobody owes you an explanation of anything that they write.

[ironyak]

Am I close?

Yep - that source from the Wikipedia article that talks about the "Judd Road", The Hawaiian Kingdom, vol. 2, 1854-1874, Twenty Critical Years notes the historic foot paths becoming horse trails and how "roads, or what were called roads, were were coming into existence in other places by a familiar historical process - "the trail became a road"". (pgs 23-26)

The 1932 TMK Map (tif download) for that area marks both the Saddle Road, as well as the Waikii Road to Kamuela and a Trail towards Hilo located farther north by the Humu'ula Sheep Station which shows that a (cart -> wagon/carriage -> car) Saddle Road was in service even before the military graded over the 1935-6 flow in 1943.

If you're interested in more history, the saddleroad.com source that MyManoa linked earlier has the Final EIS Executive Summary buried away which gives a good overview, and then if you want all the details, the full FEIS (big pdfs!) can be downloaded from state planning - parts 1, 2, & 3.

Part 3 beginning around pdf page 182 has an interesting "Cultural History, Settlement, and Land Use" section about historic uses of the Saddle region including bird catching, and later cattle, sheep, & goat ranching, as well as the establishment of a "cart road" by 1873, and details from a car trip up Saddle in 1931!

[TomK]

Tom, what is the point of hounding people about their comments? 

Just because you think that someone's post lacked the proper APA citation does not mean that you can elect yourself as their professor.  You're not grading papers and nobody owes you an explanation of anything that they write.

I'm not hounding anyone. I'm just saying some people hurled insults rather than answering my questions.

[Ccat]

There will be a breach.  That's as far out as my limb goes.

USGS is also reporting "New breakout upslope to east is robbing #lava from main channel ~2.8 mi behind front of main flow."

What do I win?

An intact high-speed cross-island highway and all the cheap hotdogs and rotisserie chickens you desire! (Message brought to you by Costco and the MLO - both soon to be recording new record highs!)

Well thank you, but I believe the prize should go to you and the others who have provided so much valuable and interesting information to those of us who come here looking for exactly that.  So thank you, and to Rob as well for providing the space for this to happen.

Aloha

[Chas]

I'd like to add my thanks to everyone who posted links and other very interesting information about the saddle road.

I have a question I have been wondering about for some time now.

I notice that there are what appear to be "driveways", if you will, all along the road. Some of these have pretty elaborate stone culverts/bridges. Most go nowhere. I guess these are probably to privately owned land. My question is, were these just "included" as cost of the construction or did the owners have to pay (via an assessment), or pay extra for the fancy stone ones? I am also assuming that some land was "taken" from private owners for the construction so maybe that was part of the deal(?)

I am just curious about it. The answer is probably somewhere in the voluminous information already provided here, but I must confess, I'm not going to spend the time looking for it. I promise I won't complain if I don't get an answer or that someone else didn't look it up for me!

[AaronS]

This is the reason why the existing highway wasn't shifted mauka near Maunakea Access Road. The land is owned by the DHHL for ranching homesteading purposes. The homesteaders would be up in arms if the highway was shifted to land out of reach from lava flows.

The CFLHD had a difficult time just shifting Saddle Road between m.m 35 and m.m 29 out of the PTA training area. They had to establish a new Palila nesting area on the northwest side of Maunakea to make up for the land lost for this realignment.

The Federal Government, or the State of Hawaii, owns the land this highway crosses from Mamalahoa Highway to around m.m 12 on the Hilo side. Those stub outs were constructed to access those government lands. As soon  as the highway crosses m.m 12, there is a mix of privately own and State of Hawaii owned lands. These required the condemnation of land from these private landowners, or the transfer of land from the state department managing  these lands. If the land was privately owned, a stub out was included in any agreement to condemn their land.

[ironyak]

I would add that the entire focus of the EIS is minimizing impacts while gaining maximum benefits for the project. As such moving the roadway out of the threat of lava would be entirely impractical given the miles of lands that would be disturbed, especially considering there is no reason to predict the next flow would be any more likely to follow the 1935 path than the lava paths from1899, 1855, 1880-1, etc. The sole mention of the threat of lava in the FEIS Executive Summary notes only: "In addition, the entire island is considered a lava hazard zone. The eastern portion of the study corridor is at greater risk from lava inundation than the western portion."

While a report in 2020 recommended aligning land use and development with the USGS lava zones, it largely hasn't seemed to make any difference (and those living and working in low numbered lava zones might want to stop and consider if you actually want this recommendation to be followed)

https://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/202...-disaster/
"After the lava flows from the 2018 Kilauea eruption took out more than 700 homes and cost tens of millions of dollars in road reconstruction and land buyouts, the county spent more than $2 million on a consultant to conduct an islandwide volcanic risk assessment as well as a Kilauea recovery plan.

The 400-plus-page volcanic risk assessment by Honolulu-based Tetra Tech Inc. was completed in June 2020. But little, if any, action has been taken on the report, nor do several top administrative officials seem to be familiar with it.
...
But 10% of the county’s volcanic high hazard area land is categorized for urban expansion or as another urban category, such as high-, medium-, or low-density urban, according to the report. The volcanic high hazard area is defined as lava zones 1 and 2, including a 1,000-foot buffer. Historic lava flow areas dating back to 1790, and NEHRP class soils D and E, which amplify and magnify ground shaking and increase building damage and losses, were also included.

Some 10,688 households, 14.7% residents and some $5.2 billion in assets lie within this high hazard zone, which covers 34.1% of land on the island
...
The entire report can be found at https://bit.ly/3UqkYaw."

---

PS: Lava probably pau - be very unusual to resume activity at this point according to USGS.

https://twitter.com/USGSVolcanoes/status...9489422338

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

While a report in 2020 recommended aligning land use and development with the USGS lava zones,  

This was brought up by a call-in questioner on one of the first days of the eruption when Mitch Roth, Ken Hon, etc were fielding questions from the public & media.  The caller wanted to know if any findings from the report applied to Mauna Loa.  The subject was quickly changed and avoided.


those living and working in low numbered lava zones might want to stop and consider if you actually want this recommendation to be followed)

I don't believe the recommendations in the $2 million dollar report are something government officials wish to discuss during an ongoing eruption, or probably afterwards either.  In this instance, "move along, nothing to see here" is probably mutually beneficial.