Parties involved in litigation over the collapse of Yeager Airport's safety overrun area are trying to reach agreements today on where to conduct core sampling at the base of the March 2015 landslide, and on which contractor should do the drilling needed to produce the samples following a hearing on Wednesday before Kanawha Circuit Judge Joanna Tabit,
While Tabit ruled that litigants would be allowed to conduct their own sampling, expected to be used as evidence in upcoming lawsuits over the slide, "the hopes are that an agreement can be reached to have one driller do the work," said Charleston attorney Matt Nelson, who represents the Charleston airport in the matter.
Once such an agreement is made, "the drilling will proceed shortly thereafter," said Terry Sayre, Yeager's executive director. "Once the core samples are taken, then the remediation of the rest of the [landslide] material can take place. And hopefully we can then get Keystone Drive cleared and open in some fashion."
Sayre said the clearing of Keystone Drive in a safe and efficient manner to restore full access to residents and businesses along Keystone and Barlow drives is the airport's main focus in removing the 200,000 cubic yards of material remaining in the slide zone.
Meanwhile, a lawsuit seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages from the airport on behalf of Keystone Apostolic Church, which was demolished by the slide, has been filed in Kanawha Circuit Court and assigned to Judge Tod Kaufman.
Among other things, the suit charges the Charleston airport with negligence by failing to "exercise reasonable care, prudence and skill" in constructing the mechanically stabilized earth structure that supported the safety overrun area and by failing to warn church officials of an impending collapse in time for them to remove items from church property, which remains unusable because it is still covered by debris from the slide.
While the suit filed on behalf of the church this week seeks an unspecified sum "sufficient to compensate the church for its actual, compensatory and consequential damages," an $8 million amount was cited during an airport board meeting following settlement conferences between the church and the airport last fall. The two parties later agreed to take part in mediation but failed to resolve their issues.
In federal court, the church's insurance carrier is also suing Yeager in an effort to recover $1.3 million it paid the church.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at
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