Dredging Up Pohoiki Again

[Sam Son]

.    If community development was a competitive sport, I'd say that the County, State, and Federal Kilauea disaster relief efforts are running nose to nose to nose.  Which is to say that they are all at a dead stop.  

      Starting with FEMA:  Replacing the road and waterline along the coast is on hold because of a dispute about the bid specifications and the alleged actions by PGV developers who ....  Oops, we don't want to go there again.

     Then there's the County's refurbishment of Isaac Hale Beach Park.  There's a pile of disaster relief money waiting to be released to rebuild the area into a replication of a Native Hawaiian fishing community designed and policed by a local militia.  Plans have been drawn up, grants have been approved, and the stewards have been selected.  What's the hold up?  The funding can't be released until the road and highway are installed.

     Tying for last place in performance is the State's Pohoiki boat ramp dredging adventure.  Sure, the bid specifications went out and Goodfellow, Bros. was the low bidder for the debris removal.  Unfortunately, the low bid was far higher than the amount of funding available, so the entire project is on hold until the governor agrees to pay more ransom money.  (Yet another Punaweb scoop!)  It's a holiday weekend, so I can't tell you just how much money it will take to get the rocks to start rolling, but Greggor should weigh in soon.

     And how much dredging are we talking about?  A channel 325 feet long and 160 feet wide.  Or what a couple of guys on Bobcats can move in a week.

     So when will the Pohoiki boat ramp be reopened?  Possibly before the next lava flow.

[Darnok]

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will lead new ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ in Trump administration "………I am hoping this will shake up Hawaii government to the core
Winds of change are coming…..

[MyManao]

I am hoping this will shake up Hawaii government to the core..

Well, hope away. As it is Hawaii is a state, has nothing to do with those jokers back east. Though I suspect, especially when we consider how many jobs in Hawaii are federal, and how many in the private sector are migrant, a lot of woe is coming to the islands. In other words your wishes will manifest as a lot of your neighbors being unemployed.. ie your economy tanking.

And yeah, thanks for letting us know we have your wishes to thank for it..

As to the actual point of the thread.. 

The funding can't be released until the road and highway are installed..

What a hoot! 

Another interesting thing tangentially related... in a similar thread I posted a mention of an article from Iceland showing how quick they are to reestablish roads inundated by lava.. they've even gone so far as to establish extra bus stops in an area where a parking lot got covered.. within a week of the event. Before the lava even stopped flowing.. road fixed extra transportation options established.. while here we have mounds of excuses as to why not..

Btw.. thanks for keeping us informed Sam Son, your perspective is enlightening.

[kalianna]

Itʻs not just Iceland. In the time itʻs taken the powers that be to decide what/where/how to restore our roads, Notre Dame has been rebuilt.

https://www.npr.org/2024/11/29/nx-s1-521...l-unveiled

[ironyak]

Well despite all obstacles, local and far-flung, the dredging has actually begun! Scott is making regular visits for those that want to keep track without making a trek.

[MarkD]

Well despite all obstacles, local and far-flung, the dredging has actually begun! 

Yes, it has.  The obstructionists, including the permitting people, are patting themselves on the back for having been so kind as to allow the people of East Hawaii to have this benefit -- the restoration of destruction by a lava flow on a small section of shoreline.  (Lava in two episodes, 1991 and 2018, devastated some 8-plus miles of Puna shoreline, including a striking array of surfing breaks and snorkeling/swimming sites.)

Expect that the obstructionists will expect people to stay silent for at least 50 years before making any further shoreline modification requests, such as clearing the rocky entrance to Richardson Beach Park, or replacing lava-covered Ahalanui Pond.  https://bigislandguide.com/ahalanui-hot-...ounty-park

[ironyak]

Given the sheer amount of sand available for being moved, maybe shore-goers can pocket some while at Pohoiki and then covertly deposit it at Richardson's while negotiating the water entrance. Sort of a Shawshank Redemption style effort with a hopefully more pleasant swim in the end. ;)

More seriously, I too miss the hot ponds - yet another unique bit of the Puna coast reclaimed by the lava. Queen's Bath, Harry K, & many more - gotta keep going with the flow I guess.

Anyone been out to the "new" Kapoho beaches accessed from "4" corners lately? How's the hike and stranded wading pools these days?

[MarkD]

- yet another unique bit of the Puna coast reclaimed by the lava. 

Appreciate the pleasant comments, but I'm curious:  why is "reclaimed" the preferred word for a shoreline covered (or more critically, destroyed) by lava?  True, Ahalanui was man-made site on the coast--some might call it an infringement.  

But the covering of 8-plus miles of Puna shoreline included the killing of vast sections of coral, tidepools and other marine life habitat and geographical features like bays.   Was that a "reclamation" also?  If Haleakala erupts and destroys beaches along Kihei, is that a reclamation?  (Interesting trivia: Haleakala,  Last eruption was between 1480 and 1600.) 

Fascinating how some environmentalist perspectives hold that only humans can "destroy" shorelines, and that warrants criticism, while lava covering coastlines should be viewed with only the shrug of shoulders -- and most importantly, should not justify rectifying the situation.

[ironyak]

Every shoreline in Hawaii was once raw, jagged lava. On a long enough timescale, most East, South, and West Hawaii Island shorelines will likely also be raw lava once again. Hence, the lava reclaims that boundary between land and sea regardless if there's sand, stairs, starfish, or shops there in the meantime. If you prefer to say the lava destroyed what was there, ok, but it also created "there". We humans can only really modify what already preexisted our arrival (geological forces have a time frame advantage ;)

That's not to say there isn't a place for accommodating ocean access IMHO - getting that handrail put in at Richardson's seems a simple ask, but still haven't found the ADA plans so have no idea what options were discussed in the time since 1997 when the ADA lawsuit was won. Or apparently invest time, energy, and money to dredge a canal to reopen the Pohoiki boat ramp (hear there's some special bucket crane being brought from the mainland - neato tools of the fossil fuel age made possible via monetization that leaves kids and grandkids paying the true cost).

Regardless, human-made changes to the shore are inherently temporary due to the never-ending churn of water, rock, wind, ground faults, and (locally) magma. Given all the sand and rock still rolling around out there, will this "rectifying the situation" be particularly short lived at Pohoiki? Time will tell, it always does.

[MyManao]

Appreciate the pleasant comments, but I'm curious:  why is "reclaimed" the preferred word for a shoreline covered (or more critically, destroyed) by lava?

I prefer... the lava created.. as it created the land covered, and the land under that that was covered before, and will cover the land that is there now.. over and over again. For me, that takes precedent. 

If one wants to live on an active volcano.. methinks one should be happy with the way the volcano creates things.. not reshape the volcano to their will as if their happiness depends upon the reshaping. After all, one can go elsewhere to find their happiness if they don't find it here.