Airport Leader Seeks Advice From Legislators on Slip That Could Hinder Facility Access

Dec. 7—A landslide two years ago has put a section of Airport Road on shaky ground, and now the director of West Virginia International Yeager Airport is asking state lawmakers for advice on how to head off a potential catastrophe.

Airport Director and CEO Dominique Ranieri met with lawmakers from Kanawha County at the Capitol on Tuesday, where she outlined a problem that has plagued the airport, as well as the residents around it. The meeting was not related to committee meetings currently taking place ahead of the January session of the West Virginia Legislature.

The landslide occurred under Airport Road and above Keystone Drive. Ranieri said that, when the state put in new culverts in 2020, the old ones were not capped, leading to the water flow that caused the slip.

The landslide has the potential to collapse Airport Road and threatens to bury Keystone Drive below. Ever since the slip, that section of Keystone Drive has been restricted to one lane. The West Virginia Department of Transportation put up a barrier and there are stop signs to regulate traffic.

Ranieri estimated there are 20 to 25 homes in the area near the landslide.

The airport purchased a house on Keystone Drive near the slip when the resident became concerned, paid for some of the temporary measures and contracted the design of a permanent solution. The bill to date stands at $292,136.84.

"The barrier and soil nails were done by the state. The airport removed all of the trees and paid for the design of a more permanent fix," Ranieri said.

The airport has applied for a state-funded Industrial Access Road Grant to cover the $993,000 cost of a permanent solution, she said.

"Our hold-up with that grant is that it requires us to match half," she said.

Both Airport Road and Keystone Drive are state roads. For Delegate Dana Ferrell, R- Kanawha, the logic of a state grant requiring a match to fix a state road doesn't track.

"It's their road and they're asking you to have matching funds? The [Division] of Highways is basically making you jump through hoops to get their own road fixed," Ferrell said.

Delegate Doug Skaff, D- Kanawha, said a long-term solution could involve the airport taking over the two roads, which would allow it to control their maintenance, but that doesn't solve the problem in a timely fashion, given that Airport Road is the only access to the terminal, he said. A collapse would be catastrophic, he said.

Skaff is president of HD Media, parent company of the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Ranieri agreed that taking over the roads doesn't address the immediate concern.

"Part of me does not want the road. It's a very old road that was not built by us. The business person in me would love to take it over after it's fixed," Ranieri said.

Ferrell suggested making a direct plea to Gov. Jim Justice regarding the matter, but he noted that the state has stopped contracting out landslide work and has its own crews specifically for the task. These crews are often spread thin, he said.

"We've got slips all over the state. We stopped contracting out that work and decided to do it ourselves, but there are something like four crews and 1,500 slips," Ferrell said.

Ferrell added, "This situation is a poster child for why we need an all-of-the-above mindset for solutions to these slips. We have West Virginia companies sitting idle while people are begging for infrastructure fixes."

Roger Adkins covers politics. He can be reached at 304-348-4814 or email [email protected].

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