HURL Banner

Makai Research Pier - A Test Facility for Underwater Equipment and Instrumentation

LRT in trainingThe Makai Research Pier Facility is located on the South-East corner of Oahu, near Makapu'u Point, about a 40-minute drive from the University of Hawaii's Manoa campus. It provides easy access to clean, sheltered, and usually fairly calm near shore waters. The seafloor around the working area of the pier is flat and sandy, with an average depth of about 4m. Individual researchers and groups from various backgrounds have started using the Makai Pier Facility as a test location for a wide range of underwater equipment. HURL strives to accommodate these requests as much as possible, working around expedition and submersible refit schedules. The activities range in complexity from simple, long-term material exposure experiments to full scale wet testing of large multi-component arrays.

The following material assets are available at Makai Pier for project support:

  • Access to the water from inside the main hangar, providing protection from weather
  • Two, 5-T gantry cranes for heavy gear deployment inside main hangar
  • Small, hand operated davit for outside gear deployment up to 200 lbs
  • 110V and 208V power outlets
  • Fresh water access
  • 17' Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat (RHIB) with 90 hp engine
  • 13' inflatable with 15 hp engine
  • Dive locker
  • HP air compressor (3500 psi max)
  • LP shop air (100 psi)
  • Fully equipped machine shop (lathe, milling machine, drill presses, band saw, etc.)
  • Welding corner (TIG and stick)
  • Electronics lab
  • WiFi Internet access (DSL)
  • HD underwater photography and videography
  • Gated weekend security and video surveillance system
  • Launch, Recovery and Transport vehicle (LRT-30A)
  • 12,000 ft3 of HP air available on LRT when used as surface support barge

All five, full time HURL personnel at Makai Pier are certified UH science divers and can assist with underwater tasks upon request. A large, submersible barge, the LRT-30A, was recently refitted and ABS certified. Apart from its primary purpose, the launch and recovery of PISCES class submersibles, this unique vessel is also capable of delivering large instruments to the sea floor. In deeper waters, this is accomplished with the help of PISCES submersibles, but at shallow depth (30m max) this task can be performed by a team of LRT trained personnel.

[ Top of page ]