Geoscientists update residents on project timelines
A group of engineers and geoscientists updated residents last week on research efforts and projects related to the December storms, including the installation of a new weather station on Mount Riley and plans to map undeveloped land for landslide hazards.
University of Alaska Fairbanks professor of geological engineering Margaret Darrow said she applied for a National Science Foundation grant soon after the storms.
“The main focus of this grant is to understand why the particular slope failed, meaning the Beach Road slide, how it responds to the spring snow melt and how the surface evolves with time,” Darrow said.
Working with researchers from the University of Washington, the grant will help fund more high-resolution aerial LiDAR imaging using drones in late June. While most of the work will be done on the Beach Road slide, it’s possible they will collect data from other areas as well. FEMA funding will help pay for a UAF graduate student, Victoria Nelson, to conduct further research across the Chilkat Valley.
“Her focus will be characterizing the landslide types and key distinguishing features throughout the Haines area,” Darrow said. “Sites for that may be along Lutak Road. If you have other sites on your personal property and want to give permission to access, I would still love to hear from you.”
De Anne Stevens, Engineering Geology Section Chief for the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (DGGS), told residents that hazard mapping would mostly occur on undeveloped land and that any mapping on developed land would be done in coordination with community needs and wants. DGGS mapped and modeled landslide hazards in Sitka, which resulted in controversy over the maps’ impact on property values, insurance and the ability to acquire bank loans.
“What we learned…is that it is better to stay away from the modeling,” Stevens said of the experience in Sitka. “It’s too conjectural. People take the data too far from where it should be taken given how much information is behind it.”
Stevens said DGGS mapped existing, historic and prehistoric landslides across Sitka. Similar mapping and analysis will be done in Haines, with the project expected to be finished in 2023.
“This mapping will provide evidence that will support future cost-benefit analysis that is required by FEMA for future mitigation funding,” Stevens said. “This provides baseline info they need to be able to justify future funding be there another disaster or not. It also provides critical technical information for Haines’ comprehensive plan and hazard mitigation plan.”
Candice Scott, who left her home off Cathedral View Drive after the storms, asked who she should contact about mapping and analysis of her property.
“The creek between my property and my neighbor’s property, that is going to remain on my mind until further notice,” Scott said. “My priority is safety and it certainly trumps my property value or my concern with insurance.”
Emergency Operations Center spokesperson Liz Cornejo said the public should contact the borough regarding property they want to see evaluated. “The public would go to the borough and the borough would ask the agency to do something on behalf of the borough,” she said. “That doesn’t stop anyone from contracting their own geo tech consultant from doing their own analysis…The timeline for results is not going to be this year.”
Stevens also discussed the new weather station on the top of Mount Riley that will collect precipitation, temperature and snowmelt data. It will also measure water depth and drainage rates in an area that collects water and influences groundwater pressure near the station.
Alaska Department of Transportation geotechnical engineer Travis Eckhoff outlined the state’s plan for public infrastructure repairs and reconstruction. The state has compiled a database of damaged sites across Southeast Alaska associated with the December storms. Eckhoff said 80% of the sites are in Haines.
“Quite a bit of the damage from the event, almost all of it, happened in Haines. That damage included debris flows, culvert washouts, loss of pavement, just an array of damage,” Eckhoff said.
Many of the repairs are in the developmental phase although the state has identified “fast track” projects, slated for construction next spring, including Mosquito Lake Road, various pavement patches across Haines and culvert replacements.