Is a ‘Lava Ferry’ the Answer for a Threatened Hawaiian Community?
The lava flow near Pahoa, as seen on Nov. 11. Hawaii Volcano Observatory / USGS
A slowly creeping lava flow could still cut off an important state highway. Could an airship help bridge the gap?
The last time we checked in on the slowly creeping lava flow on Hawaii’s Big Island, it had essentially stalled right outside the village of Pahoa in December.
The June 27 lava flow, so named for the date of start of this eruption at the Kilauea volcano inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, had been slowly moving in the direction of populated areas over the course of many months.
While that lava flow has essentially stalled just outside Pahoa, it’s still very much active: A newer advancing arm of lava started new paths to the northeast.
The June 27 lava flow has stalled outside Pahoa, but is still active. (This USGS map shows lava's location as of Jan. 9.)
Regardless of where the lava’s precise direction ends up, many of the long-term risks remain the same—if the lava flow severs an important state highway, many residents in the Puna area would be essentially cut off from the rest of the island .
Public services would have to be repositioned to continue to serve the populations on either side of the lava flow.
While emergency backup roads have been built and are ready for use one the lava reaches Highway 130, are there other options to get around the lava?
What about an airship?
Hilo attorney Steve Strauss has proposed the Lava Ferry, a helium-filled “cabled dirigible system pulled by computer-automated winches to ferry people back and forth over the lava should the state highway be inundated by the active lava flow,” according to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald .
Strauss has secured rights to use SkyFlyer aerostat technology developed by Lindstrand Technologies for the project.
As Honolulu Civil Beat writes :
The whole system would work much like a ski lift, with the winches pulling the passenger gondola up the cable toward the airship, and then lowering it slowly down the cable to a landing on the far side of the flow.
Each trip is estimated to take just five minutes, allowing a many as 1,000 passengers to be ferried each day, Strauss said. He estimates local residents would have to pay $15 per trip, not insubstantial but potentially worth it when the time otherwise lost in the long commute and gasoline costs are taken into account.
Strauss estimates about 10 percent of affected Puna residents would use the Lava Ferry rather than take the long commute. The system would also be open to tourists, who would be charged twice the resident rate, or around $30 per person, Strauss said.
The proposed Lava Ferry has the support of state Sen. Russell Ruderman, who represents the area.
According to a U.S. Geological Survey June 27 flow update posted Monday, the lava flow headed in the direction of Pahoa Marketplace is stalled about 800 meters from the intersection of Highway 130 and Pahoa Village Road.
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