D-9 falling in a Lava Tube ??

[Nate SC]

I'm not really in "The Loop", so whats the deal with this bulldozer falling in a "Puka" do tell ??

[Hopefeather]

In Orchidland, off Auli'i Road, a D-9 tractor found itself a nice big lava tube to fall in. The D9 isn't in it still, but the hole is still there - now w/ yellow caution tape around it. I think there is a picture at www.orchidland.org.

hope

[Hopefeather]

The picture is in the FAQ portion of the site.

hope

[Carolann R]

Whoa...that's amazing. I remember when Lee told us about it but never saw the picture until today. I wonder if there isn't some kind of equipment that can spot those tubes from above-ground.



Carrie

"The opportunities to reach into the lives of others in an inspiring way arise in countless ways every single day..." Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

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[Les C]

I think that equipment is called a D-9 :-)

Les

[mella l]

Yeah it is the D-9 alright, but perhaps there is some ground penetrating radar type thing that would point to where the voids are. You know like fishing boat radar spots schools. Amazing things we don't know out there I'm positive!

mella l

[Royall]

Sounds like a lot of money!

Royall

What goes around comes around!

[toucano]

Seems like most buyers balk at even hiring a pin-finder to find the corners before they buy. I can't imagine many/any willing to fork out for a GPR search for lava tubes.

But here is a service that will do one. I have NO idea of cost:

http://www.groundpenetratingradar.com/sinkholes/

To have a survey conducted in Hawaii, contact us at:
Phone: (703) 777-9788
FAX: (703) 777-3814
e-mail: gprsurveys@groundpenetratingradar.com

[Carey]

Haven't work on void detection for a long time, but had some experience in hiring the service back in the '90's. It was in the thousands for either a GPR or an EMI test of older gas stations (for remediation work). Usally more than 10x the survey cost, and this was on fairly level terrain. The technician must cover all of the mapped terrain with an antennea detector (vehicle mounted or pull behind are the most common). Think of how much it would cost to have a trained (most likely flown in) technician walking across the terrain, if it could even done on some of the lots here.
GPR units are coming down into the $20-25,000 range for a pull behind unit, but I cannot imagine how it would be possible on many of the lots here, prior to clearing. Most of the lots are cleared by D-9s, so they end up being a void checker. It does seem that the operators are all well aware of void potentials here. I think that a lot more would have to get pitted more often to justify the cost of a vehicle mounted array that would work well on the terrain here.
Aloha, Carey

[Hazen]

Is there anything someone on the forum isn't an expert on! PunaWeb Rocks!