Giant Nails Will be Used to Prevent Alabama Landslides

Alabama transportation officials hope they have the answer to preventing landslides on Lookout Mountain near Fort Payne: Giant nails.

The state Department of Transportation has hired Soil Nail Launcher Inc. of Grand Junction, Colo., to shoot long, nail-like tubes into slumping soil inside the Fort Payne city limits.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that the company repairs landslides around the country, including in Tennessee.

Officials say the work will cost a little less than $3 million.

Johnny Harris, the state agency’s division engineer for nine northeastern counties, says that amount is three to five times less expensive than going the standard route of building a rock buttress below a soft spot and using rock fill above the buttress to stabilize the slope.