Were Airports Affected by Liquefaction in the Loma Prieta Earthquake?
Oakland International Airport (OAK) operations were affected by the Loma Prieta earthquake, in spite of its location over 40 miles from the fault source for the earthquake. The airport’s main 10,000-foot runway, built on hydraulic fill over Bay mud, was severely damaged by liquefaction; 3,000 feet of the runway sustained cracks, some of which were a foot wide and a foot deep. Spreading of the adjacent unpaved ground resulted in cracks up to 3 feet wide. Large sand boils appeared on the runway and adjacent taxiway, a few as wide as 40 feet (EERI, 1990). As a result, OAK was immediately shut down to evaluate runway damage. A shorter 6,212-foot general aviation runway was used to accommodate diverted air traffic for a couple of hours before the main runway was reopened with a usable length of only 7,000 feet. This shorter runway length impacted cargo loads during takeoff. Over the 30 days following the earthquake, 1,500 feet of the 3,000 foot damaged section of the runway was repaired usi
