Chilkat Valley News - Serving Haines and Klukwan, Alaska since 1966

Geotechnical consulting firm Landslide Technologies has finished its second surface reconnaissance, part of a state-commissioned study of the stability of the Beach Road neighborhood.

Houses in the neighborhood have been without road access and power since Dec. 2 when a landslide tore through the area, destroying several structures and killing two people. Government officials hope stability study findings, due at the end of the year, will inform decisions about long-term area access.

“It’s all really geared toward understanding the geologic hazards at the landslide site and evaluating the risks associated with those hazards,” Alaska Department of Transportation geotechnical engineer Travis Eckhoff said.

During the surface investigation, geotechnical experts returned to areas covered with snow during the winter reconnaissance. A findings report from the winter reconnaissance was released in April. In the report, Landslide Technologies emphasized that the findings were preliminary due to the snow.

“(This summer) they revisited a lot of snow-covered areas from the winter reconnaissance to make sure they didn’t miss anything or get anything wrong. Now that the ground is clear, they’re able to see terrain and topography in the slide and will update preliminary findings based on that,” Eckhoff said.

The geotechnical team also installed extensometers, wires running across the crack at the top of the slide path to measure movement. The team will return in August to install a “robotic total station,” equipment to monitor for movement in the slide path using reflectors placed in the area earlier this year.

The last member of the surface study team left Haines on Wednesday, Eckhoff said. The geotechnical firm will now shift to data processing with plans to return in late summer or early fall to begin a subsurface investigation.

Eckhoff said the investigation will involve drilling 12 test holes to gauge rock composition as well as installing instruments in the holes to measure movement and groundwater changes.

Updates on the timeline for surface data processing and the subsurface investigation will be available in the coming weeks.