CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Excavators, dump trucks and other equipment have been engaged in debris removal since the massive hillside collapse at Yeager Airport’s overrun area last year leaving an eye sore in the Kanawha Valley, but local officials are looking forward to work scheduled to be complete this fall.
“The light is at the end of the tunnel and that’s what I’m excited about,” said Kanawha County Commissioner Dave Hardy who got to check out the site Tuesday from above Keystone Drive in Charleston.
Media members were given a tour of the construction site and work involved since the slope failure occurred March 12, 2015.
Hardy said he remembers checking out the damage from down below right after it happened.
“I was down at the bottom of this large hill and had the aura of seeing part of it start to come down,” he explained. “It was a terrible feeling and, at that time, we didn’t know where this would end up, but there’s been a lot of good work.”
The construction, fortunately, has not impacted day-to-day operations, according to Yeager Airport Executive Director Terry Sayre.
“We’re staying at normal operations right now. Everything’s running smoothly,” he said.
So far, airport officials report approximately 377,000 cubic yards of debris have been removed with about another 130,000 to go.
The goal is to have the debris removal complete by late October, Sayre said.
With Yeager being an “economic driver” in the region, Hardy said it’s important to get the airport back on track.
“We need Yeager to be back on target with what Yeager should be doing and has been doing under very hard circumstances,” he said.
Yeager officials have put rebuilding plans on hold as they continue to try and identify funding sources.
“We’re just looking at 7-10 different rebuild options at this time and we haven’t made up our mind. There’s no need to decide on a rebuild option until you get some money,” Sayre said.
Some of those funds could come out of pending lawsuits with multiple parties involved in an ongoing legal battle of who is going to pay for slope costs.
“I wouldn’t even want to name the number, but it’s going to be multiple, multiple millions of dollars,” Hardy predicted. “Our lawsuit, I believe, had 28 defendants, so there are lots of parties pointing the finger at each other, but there’s also a lot of insurance coverage at issue here too.”
“Ultimately, if we let this go through the courts and the experts testify, we’ll get to the bottom of what caused this and I think we’re well on our way to doing that,” he said.
The collapse destroyed a church, damaged several homes and displaced a number of residents along Keystone Drive. The road was shutdown following the incident.