Another confrontation is brewing in the dispute over the construction of the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope atop Haleakala.
Foes of the $340 million project are planning another protest after it was announced that another convoy of oversize trucks loaded with construction parts and material would be dispatched to the top of the 10,000-foot Maui mountain late Wednesday night.
Twenty demonstrators were arrested July 30 in the last attempt to block a shipment of large telescope parts from reaching the summit.
Kahele Dukelow, a leader of Kako‘o Haleakala, said the group is planning some kind of action against Wednesday’s deployment, but she’s not sure what yet. The group is meeting Monday to discuss a strategy.
“Our goal is we don’t want them to make the trip,” said Dukelow, a Hawaiian-studies professor at the University of Hawaii Maui College.
Kaho‘o Haleakala is a new group inspired by those who have successfully stalled construction of the Thirty Meter Telescope atop Mauna Kea this summer.
Asked about the upcoming protest, Inouye Telescope project manager Joseph McMullin responded in an email, “We respect the rights of anyone to peacefully express themselves and hope that our legal rights will be equally respected.”
The Maui Police Department previously said it respects the right of peaceful protest but will respond “in an appropriate manner.”
If Wednesday’s protest comes off as expected, it will be the group’s third attempt to prevent a delivery of telescope materials from the Central Maui Baseyard in Puunene to the top of Haleakala.
The first demonstration stopped a convoy of wide-load vehicles June 24, but the second one July 30 ultimately failed as Maui police arrested 20 protesters.
During the protest, five demonstrators joined hands inside polyvinyl chloride pipes fastened with duct tape and laid themselves in front of the vehicles. Police officers spent several hours using handsaws to cut through the pipes before the convoy proceeded up the volcano.
Formerly known as the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope, the exterior of the 14-story Inouye Telescope observatory is about 80 percent built at the University of Hawaii’s Science City area of Haleakala’s summit.
The project, planned for completion in 2019, is expected to be the world’s most powerful solar telescope, enabling astronomers to examine the sun in unprecedented detail for two solar cycles — about 22 years — before it is removed.
The Hawaii Supreme Court is weighing the merits of a challenge to the project’s state-issued conservation use permit. Kilakila o Haleakala, a group of Native Hawaiians that has been fighting the project for a decade, is hoping the court will halt construction.
Leaders of Kako‘o Haleakala say they are upset that construction has been allowed to proceed on what they call a sacred mountaintop even as the project is being contested in court.
Wednesday’s convoy, composed of three semitrailers and various support vehicles, will travel at 2 to 5 mph and transport a load more than 23 feet wide. Passage through Haleakala National Park is being allowed by special use permit.
According to Haleakala National Park, Crater Road and the summit road will be closed to visitors from 6 p.m. Wednesday to 2 p.m. Thursday as the convoy moves near the summit. The Haleakala Visitor Center will remain closed all day.
