The removal of a Maunakea observatory is slated to begin this spring and will prompt the temporary closure of several roads.
The California Institute of Technology in 2022 announced it had received the final permits necessary to begin the deconstruction of its Caltech Submillimeter Observatory, with the $4 million project expected to begin by the end of summer 2022 and end before the start of 2023.
The observatory, however, is still standing.
“You find that, when you have to sit down and do something, it takes more steps than you thought,” said CSO director Sunil Golwala.
In particular, Golwala said that finding contractors able to dismantle an observatory on top of a mountain was much more time-consuming in Hawaii than it might have been in California.
The process will require a heavy crane capable of lifting 120 tons that will be brought up the mountain to remove the telescope itself, which weighs about 85,000 pounds, Golwala said.
“Getting the crane up there shouldn’t be a problem,” Golwala said. “The road can handle it. It won’t be much different than the water trucks that go up there. The hard part will be bringing the telescope back down again.”
Golwala said Caltech aims to bring the observatory’s primary mirror — which measures 34 feet in diameter — down the mountain in a single piece, which will necessitate wide-load vehicles and the closure of several roads.
The contractors for the project have since been identified — Isemoto Contracting will provide crane services, while Goodfellow Bros. will handle the dismantling of the observatory itself — but because of the delay in doing so, Golwala said, the winter weather on the mountain became too unstable for any major work to be done last year, so the deconstruction of the observatory has been postponed until this spring.
He said work is expected to begin around April and will take roughly 140 days.
When the telescope is removed, it will be transported to Kawaihae Harbor and eventually will be shipped to Chile, where it will be installed at a university.
That trip down Maunakea and to the coast will require temporary closures of several state and county roads.
Golwala said those closures will include five nighttime traffic restrictions and closures and two short daytime closures.
State Department of Transportation spokeswoman Shelly Kunishige said the process likely will be similar to a 2019 Oahu project during which Kamehameha Highway was closed section-by-section while large wind turbine components were transported across the island.
Kunishige said any road closures will be announced at least two weeks in advance.
Permits for those closures have not yet been submitted, Kunishige said.
Beyond the telescope itself, Golwala said the observatory is largely vacant, having been emptied of most other instruments and equipment last year.
“It’s like when you’ve moved out of your house, but the house is still standing, and there’s a few big pieces of furniture left,” Golwala said.
The observatory dome will be demolished, Golwala said, after which there will be a three-year monitoring period when Caltech ensures the site is restored to its natural state.
The decommissioning is the first of five observatory removals planned in exchange for the proposed construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope on Maunakea. The second, the University of Hawaii’s Hoku Ke‘a educational telescope, is scheduled to be removed beginning in mid-2023, according to that project’s environmental assessment.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
