Geotechnical experts are in Haines this week, collecting information about the stability of the Beach Road area to inform future decisions about access to homes. The Alaska Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the contract, said they hope to have a report of findings by the end of March.
On Dec. 2, a landslide on Beach Road ended two lives, destroyed several houses and separated the neighborhood from the rest of town.
State geologists have said the area could be at heightened risk of another landslide due to a crack observed in the bedrock near the site of the original slide, but more information is needed to accurately assess the risk. Based on this information, the Haines Borough has kept the area immediately to the south of the slide path under mandatory evacuation since early December. Homes at the end of the road, though no longer subject to the evacuation order, remain disconnected from utilities.
Displaced Beach Road residents have expressed a consistent desire to return to their homes as soon as possible, but the borough has said lifting the mandatory evacuation likely won’t happen until there is more information regarding the long-term stability of the area. Likewise, AP&T has said it won’t reconnect power to homes until it receives confirmation from the borough or state that a geotechnical study has determined that the area is stable.
As a first step to inform decisions about short-term access to houses and whether it’s safe to occupy the area in the long term, the state contracted geotechnical engineering firm R&M Consultants, Inc. to study the geology of the area.
After a series of delays, the geotechnical team arrived in Haines on Monday, according to Alaska Department of Transportation technical engineer Travis Eckhoff, who is overseeing the work.
“They met with the Emergency Operations Center that afternoon, and yesterday, they were able to fly the site and hike on the north side and make some visual observations,” he said. “They’re really just focused on the geology around the slide and the slide itself, looking for any topography features that might be of interest, making sure there are no gaps in the (previously collected) data that we need to fill.”
In an interview Wednesday morning, Eckhoff said the plan was to have the team check out the south side of the slide later that day, accessing it via the temporary ATV road Roger Schnabel put in last month.
Eckhoff said the team expects to be in Haines for seven days, although the timeline could be extended, depending on weather conditions. He said recent snow complicates the geotechnical team’s ability to collect visual observations.
“Once the field work is completed, they’ll head back to the office and put together a findings report to help the borough make decisions moving forward,” Eckhoff said. He said the report will also influence state decisions about whether it’s necessary to fund another geotechnical study in the summer.