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

Landslide Technology, an Oregon-based geotechnical firm, finished its subsurface field work in the Beach Road landslide area last week.

Crews drilled 12 boreholes ranging from 40 to 125 feet. They obtained sediment core samples, took photographs of rock layers and installed equipment to measure groundwater pressure and slope angle. Collected data and analysis from the investigation will be published in an updated findings report in January 2022, according to Alaska Department of Transportation geotechnical engineer Travis Eckhoff.

While Haines Borough officials have stressed the importance of the study to help explain last December’s landslide, to gain a better idea of the risk of future slides and to assist the borough in applying for federal grants, some residents have voiced concerns about the study.

Beach Road resident Todd Winkel, whose property is below some of the boreholes, has been a vocal critic of the field work, which included felling 1.6 acres of trees to facilitate helicopter access. Winkel appealed the Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation (DPOR) permit for the drilling and logging in August.

In the appeal, Winkel raised concerns that cutting down trees would destabilize the slope, increase risk to residents in the Beach Road red zone and create “an ugly artificial patchwork” lowering Haines’ aesthetic value. He also noted, in an email to the CVN, that one of his family’s favorite old-growth trees was cut down.

In an email response to Winkel, Eckhoff wrote that clearing was limited to small areas on the hillside and that “disruption to the vegetation and surficial soils is considered minimal to negligible, and should not impact the stability of deep-seated slides and global stability of the hillside.”

The state accepted Winkel’s appeal on procedural grounds— the DPOR director didn’t provide “prior written approval” of impact findings, as is required by law—but DPOR quickly issued a new permit, enabling Landslide Technology to finish work on schedule.