The reported ten sinkholes right beneath the 2000 meter long runway of the New Bohol Panglao Airport (NBPA) has been stabilized and passed the stringent engineering criteria of the Japan Airport Construction (JAC).

Tadashi Awoi, JAC Project Manager of the P7.4 billion New Bohol Panglao Airport, in a press briefing on Friday, May 20, 2016 said “we discovered seven big sinkholes and we have successfully depressed or compacted the holes”.

Fears have been raised by critics of the airport construction over the vulnerability of the airport to ground collapse due to the karst soil of Panglao.

Karst topography, according to geologists is a landscape formed by the breaking up of rocks such as limestone that produces caves and sinkholes.

Awoi told the media that “sinkholes found were big, 50 to 80 meters in diameter and five meters deep considered sea water level”.

Engineering interventions consist of compaction of the holes with coral boulders, according to Awoi.

But Awoi gave the assurance that the airport runway is safe and could withstand the stress of daily aircraft landings of the present fleet of large commercial aircrafts.

“There no more sinkholes in the airport area”, said Aowi giving the assurance that the airport runway is safe and could withstand the stress of daily aircraft landings of the present fleet of large commercial aircraft.

The ongoing construction of the P7,137,960.00 airport is scheduled to be completed on December, 2017. (Chito M. Visarra)