Yeager Airport breaks ground on hillside repair project

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Construction will soon begin on a $23 million project to fix Yeager Airport’s hillside.

State and local officials broke ground on the project during a Thursday ceremony in Charleston.

The project includes repairing the airport’s EMAS (Engineered Material Arresting System) and lengthening the runway to a total of 6,800 feet.

Yeager Airport Director Terry Sayre said the goal is to enhance safety.

“It’ll stop planes up to 80 miles per hour,” Sayre said. “It’s an additional safety factor that we need here at our airport because we’re configured on top of a hill.”

The work comes three years after a massive landslide wiped out a church and displaced a number of residents along Keystone Drive. Sayre said board members had to come together to assist residents.

“We all went down and evacuated the neighborhood,” Sayre recalled. “It was no fault of their own that this occurred. We tried to do the best we could to alleviate their inconvenience.”

In the time since the collapse, West Virginia’s congressional delegation has worked to secure nearly $13.5 million in federal funding. Sayre said about 90 percent of the runway project will be funded through the Federal Aviation Administration. The other 10 percent will come from the state.

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) told MetroNews getting the funding for Yeager was crucial. She said she hopes the improvements will attract more businesses to West Virginia.

“Having this safety overrun is critical to having bigger planes and that means bigger and better commerce,” Capito said after Thursday’s ceremony.

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Third District Congressman Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.) also attended the event.

Orders Construction Company will complete the work. Dozens of jobs will be needed for the project.

“We’re going to hire West Virginia workers — 75 of them — from a local construction company,” said Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper. “They’ll be paid a living wage, we’ll fix the airport and then we’ll start to expand the airport and we’re back on track at Yeager Airport.”

All lawsuits tied to the Mar. 12, 2015 collapse have been resolved, according to Sayre. He said they’re now focused on improving what was damaged. Airport officials plan to meet with contractors Friday morning to begin working up a construction plan.

Construction is scheduled to be complete by November.





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