16 July 2016

And The Beat Goes On ...

Not this:



This:

Merrill Field Pounding Expected to Last Through September

ANCHORAGE (KTUU) Six days a week, there’s a constant pounding sound coming from the Merrill Field Airport during the day. It’s a 15 ton steel-encased concrete block in free fall, hitting the ground from seven stories up.


Airport manager Paul Bowers said it's part of a unique trash compacting construction job to repave nearly eight acres of of taxiway that’s sinking into the ground of what used to be the original city dump.

“There are car bodies in here, broken buildings, broken roads, furniture,” said Bowers. “Right now, we're standing on about 25 feet of trash.”

Construction costs are about $6.9 million, primarily paid for through federal funds.

Officials said fixing up the taxiway is important because it connects the hospital to those being flown into Anchorage on emergency flights.

“Merrill field is one of the few airports in the nation with a taxiway that actually accommodates medevac aircraft going to an adjacent hospital,” said Bowers.

The concrete block compacts the trash down about eight feet. Once the entire area is smashed down, the ground will be smoothed, leveled and paved. The compacted road is expected to last about 15 years before it runs the possibility of sinking and warping again.
This trash compacting project is part of a multi-phase, multi-year effort to smooth out the roads and taxiways at Merrill Field.

6 comments:

Steve said...

Well, I'm sure some things built over a dump might be perfectly fine. Like a government building. This, however, is not one of those things. Maybe they should have built that bridge here...

Rev. Paul said...

Anchorage has a history of doing the expedient thing, even if it's not the right thing; this is a case of that. It was the first official airport in the city, when it opened in 1930.

These days, the elected officials are so paralyzed by fear of taking a stand & offending someone that they can't decide to do ANYTHING.

Terry said...

Reminded me of the Sunday School song about the wise man building his house upon the Rock and the foolish man built his house upon the sand. Or in this case, dump. Perhaps more should have attended Sunday School.

There is no perhaps about it.

Rev. Paul said...

Terry, I'm reasonably certain they knew the dump would settle. But I doubt they predicted how expensive it would become.

Old NFO said...

That's got to be monotonous... sigh... Thump, thump, thump...

Rev. Paul said...

And we are SO glad we don't live anywhere near there.