Large chunks of earth and rock break away from the hillside of the Yeager Airport runway expansion, enlarging the scope of the hill’s previous slide back in March.
The landslide at the end of Yeager Airport’s main runway slipped again Wednesday, following more than a half-month of daily rainfall.
Airport spokesman Mike Plante said a portion at the top of the slide fell about 20 feet — the first significant movement in months.
“At 10:45 a.m., we observed the top scarp fell 15 to 20 feet ... We want to stress this was not the runway. It’s the end of the runway safety area. The runway is much farther back,” Plante said.
Wednesday afternoon, airport officials blocked off the end of Keystone Drive to keep people from getting too close to the landslide. Plante said they would stay there until the movement had stabilized.
Airport and Kanawha County officials will continue monitoring the area for further movement.
The original collapse happened March 12 after cracks in the surface of the airport’s Engineered Material Arresting System, or EMAS, were discovered earlier that week. The EMAS is on a man-made extension of the hill on which the runway sits, and the airport’s operations have not been affected by the slide.
Plante said as of noon, no structures are threatened and there was no indication the slide would cause blockage of Elk Twomile Creek.
He said Rodney Loftis & Sons were staging equipment on the Barlow Drive side of the hill to monitor the slide, to make sure it doesn’t move into Twomile Creek. Monitoring to make sure the creek isn’t blocked will be officials’ biggest concern, he said.
- See more at: http://www.charlestondailymail.com
Yeager Airport officials assess damage to the hillside area comprising the airport’s runway extension Wednesday. In March a significant portion of the extension was affected by a landslide of major proportions. Heavy rains throughout the area lately have caused the exposed area of the slide to become unstable, causing further erosion and an enlargement of the area affected by the original slide.
No comments:
Post a Comment