Slippage in a three-quarter acre section of the earth-moving project at Kinetic Park has been stabilized and is not expected to be a major problem, according to Gerald McDonald, president of the Huntington Area Development Council, the developers of the high tech park.

Motorists driving by the site began noticing slippage and settlement of fill dirt on Sept. 9 in an area below W. Va. 10 adjacent to the re-located Fourpole Creek.

“During the placement of fill along Fourpole Creek, settlement of the underlying native materials was encountered,” according to a statement from McDonald. About 40 feet of fill “had been placed in the area when cracks, fissures and settlement occurred in the fill for a distance of approximately 100 feet from the top of the slope,” McDonald said.

The underlying soils “have a high water content, making them liquid under certain conditions,“ McDonald said. As a result, the original soil underlying the fill “moved laterally and heaved up.”

Triad Engineers, the project’s on-site engineering firm, noticed the settlement on Sept. 9 and the following morning “the contractor was instructed to remove the top 10 feet of the fill in order to relieve the pressure on the underlying materials. This work was completed and the area has stabilized,” McDonald said.

McDonald said the engineers believe too much fill was placed on the underlying wet soil too quickly and “did not allow the underlying soils to adjust to the increased weight.” Triad has recommended slowing the fill rate “which will squeeze the water out of the soils slowly, thus allowing the water to dissipate and the materials to consolidate.”

Triad believes it will take three weeks for the soil underneath to stabilize. Until that time fill in this problem area will be halted, McDonald said. When it begins again, the fill will resume in five-foot increments with a one-week waiting period between each fill.

“This is a minor problem that was anticipated during project design,” McDonald said. “The entire project is about 100 acres; the affected area is approximately three-quarters of an acre.”
Slightly less than half the earthmoving work has been completed at the site. Kanawha Stone, the contractor, expects to complete the earthmoving project by early December.

The original contract amount was for $7.2 million. The project budget contains an 8 percent built-in contingency for unexpected problems, McDonald said. That means the project could eventually cost about $570,000 more if more work than the contract calls for has to be done. To date, two change orders have increased the original contract by $23,100.