Contractors work to build a retaining wall after flooding last year brought down a 100-year-old wall in Brown St, Dunedin. Photo by Peter McIntosh

The June 2013 flooding caused slips around the city and closed dozens of roads across the region, including State Highway 1 to the north.

Dunedin City Council project engineer Evan Matheson said yesterday the council had worked with the Earthquake Commission and private insurers on the slip.

It had also spent significant time doing geotechnical assessments to understand why the wall had failed, so the new wall could be designed appropriately.

Mr Matheson said the previous wall, built about 100 years ago, was not a retaining wall, as such.

As well, old drains behind the wall had become blocked over the decades.

The new wall would be made from pre-cast concrete panels, anchored deep into the ground to make it ''nice and strong''.

The work was ''predominantly a council job'', as it was responsible for the wall, although about half of the cost would be paid by the New Zealand Transport Agency.

A house near the slip was ''quite stable'', Mr Matheson said.

Work began last week and was expected to be finished in October,

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Work begins on Brown St wall

The city of Baltimore and CSX Transportation have agreed to split the cost of rebuilding the one-block retaining wall that collapsed along East 26th Street in Charles Village, ending months of negotiations over who was responsible and how much taxpayers would cover.

City officials said Monday they expect the collapse to cost taxpayers about $7.5 million though the total could increase as construction continues and CSX would pay the rest. The entire project is now expected to cost about $15 million, down from an initial estimate of $18.5 million.

The landslide amid heavy rains in April sent half the block of East 26th Street between St. Paul and North Charles streets tumbling into a cut of parallel railroad tracks owned by CSX. Residents of the block were displaced for weeks and still are living in a construction zone.

Responsibility for the repairs has been a touchy subject, as CSX and city property lines intersect across Baltimore, a city with aging infrastructure and active rail lines. While the city and CSX have split costs related to retaining walls around tracks in the past, some city leaders had expressed hope that the railroad would contribute more to the reconstruction this time around.

City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young said he was "disappointed" with the agreement. He said CSX "should have paid for it all," and that he believed the wall had been maintained by the railroad.

Councilman Carl Stokes, who represents the area, said he would "trust the wisdom of the city administration" if it believed the agreement helped avoid "long and lengthy litigation," but that he has never seen documents to show "who really is truly responsible."

Neither the city nor the Florida-based railroad accept responsibility for the collapse in the agreement, but release each other from liability. They also agree to split the cost of any losses or damages awarded to third parties who bring claims in relation to the incident, with the provision that legal restrictions on government liability would cap any city contribution.

"This is a complex and significant incident. It's not easy to determine causation," said David Ralph, the deputy city solicitor. "In fact, you know, neither party believes we're necessarily at fault for this, but we realize others might hold one or both of us responsible for something that was an act of God."

Kevin Harris, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, said the mayor believes the agreement is "equitable and fair."

William Johnson, director of the city transportation department, said negotiations began soon after the collapse. "We didn't always agree on everything, but the one thing I give them credit for is they remained at the table," he said of CSX.

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City, CSX agree to split East 26th Street repair costs

TYLER, TX (KLTV) -

A Tyler rabbi has made sure East Texans prayers are heard.

We spoke with Rabbi Neal Katz in a phone interview in July while he was in Israel on a trip. Katz went with a group from Tyler, made up of both Jews and Christians, who were visiting the country together.

Before his trip, he collected prayers to take to the Western Wall where he would place them for those who could not make the trip. Its a long standing tradition that brought a little piece, or pieces of Tyler, to rest far away in Israel.

In a picture, handwritten prayers from East Texans can be seen stuffed in the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The Western Wall is the western most retaining wall of the Temple Mount, which is where the temple of old Jerusalem used to stand and the reason why that area is considered particularly holy, is because that would be the closest you could stand to where the Holy of Holies once was, Rabbi Neal Katz, of Beth El Congregation, said.

Its a decades old tradition with millions of prayers tucked in the cracks of the wall each year. Rabbi Katz decided to put out a box at a table during International Day at Tyler Junior College before his trip.

What I thought would be nice is anybody who came to the International Day: the TJC students, staff, faculty, visitors, to have an opportunity to write a prayer to put in the Western Wall since I was going to be going in June, he explained.

East Texans from all religious backgrounds wrote down their prayers.

They would fold it up and I would take some time and put it in the wall. So, just a nice way to allow for some people from Tyler to send their prayers through the Western Wall, he explained.

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Nearly 100 handwritten prayers brought from Tyler to Jerusalem

MAN ON MOTORCYCLE HITS RETAINING WALL GUY GETS RAN OVER BY MOTORCYCLE
PLEASE MAKE A DONATIION : POR FAVOR HAZ UN DONATIVO https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick hosted_button_id=69BLBT8PYUNHL.

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MAN ON MOTORCYCLE HITS RETAINING WALL & GUY GETS RAN OVER BY MOTORCYCLE - Video

Backfill a Retaining wall
This video shows how a Retaining wall should be back-filled to allow for maximum drainage.

By: Buildsum

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Backfill a Retaining wall - Video

Q: On southbound Ruchsville Road south of Church Street in Whitehall, we pass a large quarry on the right-hand side of the road. The quarry comes right up to the very edge of the road, which is deteriorating to the point where the supports for two sections of guard rail are being undermined. It's very dangerous to have a steep drop-off to a quarry far below so close to a deteriorating road. Judging by surveyor's stakes with pink ribbons marking what could be a new path of the road to the left, away from the quarry, we were wondering if PennDOT plans to move the road. If not, it should be stabilized and repaired.

Kenneth Peters, Whitehall Township

A: I don't even want to guess how long the trip would be if I drove my tiny car through the guide rail and plummeted to the quarry, or into a portion of Ranger Lake, far below.

The guide rail is there, for now. But as you can see in today's photo, a 2-foot-thick stone wall that had been behind it has broken into pieces and descended a few feet down the embankment. Anchored to the top of that crumbling wall are strands of thick steel cable that probably once prevented wayward vehicles from taking the plunge, before the guard rail was added.

That was my presumption, anyway, before I got PennDOT officials to investigate.

PennDOT engineer Al Picca wasn't quite sure of the wall's intended function either, at least, not by viewing my photographs.

"It piques my curiosity," Picca said after checking the pictures. "What's it supporting? What was its purpose? Just looking at the photo, I didn't see any kind of distress in the roadway rutting, cracks in the surface."

My assumption that it serves, or previously served, as a retaining wall for the road wasn't necessarily correct, Picca said. He speculated that the wall might have been installed by someone other than PennDOT, depending on how far the public right of way extends from the road's edge.

After visiting the site to investigate, PennDOT engineers "confirmed the wall has failed," spokesman Ron Young wrote in an email. This didn't exactly qualify as breaking news; the large chunk missing from between the two sections in the photo has tumbled far enough down the bank that it's not visible in the photo.

Though the wall initially may have been built to stabilize the road, the road itself remains in pretty good shape, said PennDOT engineer Kerri Cutright, who visited the site this week. There's no threat to safety, she said. "There's no undermining of the sub-grade" or other indications of major problems, Cutright said.

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Steep drop-off looms at crumbling wall off Ruchsville Road

(KUTV) Officials say all but three families were allowed to return back to their homes following a landslide that crushed one home, damaged a tennis and swim club, and placed four other homes in immediate danger.

Evacuations were originally issued for 27 homes on Tuesday morning, according to South Davis Metro Fire. Families in three homes in immediate danger of the landslide are still displaced at this time. Officials say residents in all 27 homes must be ready to flee at a moment's notice in case the landslide moves more.

Any residents in need of assistance are being asked to head to the LDS Church on 351 E. Lofty Lane where crews will have supplies available.

Crews are working to help minimize potential damage to the area. Water lines have been shut off and pools along the landslide area have been drained to prevent a potential tidal wave effect. South Davis Metro Fire says they used equipment to build a berm in preparation for heavy rainfall, hoping to channel the water away from the landslide area. Additional soil was also moved around to relieve pressure.

2News Holly Menino was on the scene Tuesday morning when the landslide happened and destroyed one home. She reports neighbors worked quickly to get the family out of the home before it was demolished.

"We watched as they ran from their home this morning and it's just so frightening to see someone you love and care about lose everything they have," said neighbor Janyce Nestman.

Neighbor Judy Peterson says the neighbors offered the family a place to stay, but they declined because they were told by officials they would be fine.

"We weren't fine. People knew we weren't fine," said Peterson. "People that have experienced landslides know what's happening."

The incident started about a week and a half ago on the hill above the Eagle Ridge Tennis and Swim Club on Parkway Drive. Neighbors say they noticed the earth begin to move when a developer began prepping several lots at the top of the hill.

Officials say the approval to build in the area of the landslide was given seven to nine years ago.

Original post:
Home collapses after retaining wall failure in North SLC

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has launched an investigation into Wednesdays (July 30) incident where an unidentified construction worker was injured after a retaining wall panel being built on the eastbound lanes of the Jane Addams Tollway (I-90) fell, pinning him on an easement to the tollway near Higgins Road in Rosemont.

The victims name has yet to be released. Construction workers removed the wall panel from on top of the worker using cranes at the site before first responders from the Rosemont Public Safety Department arrived on scene, officials said.

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Continued here:
Probe Wall-Pinning Accident At I-90 Work Site

Water Feature in Kansas City
Stunning water feature project completed by Good Earth Outdoor in the Kansas City area has it all. A wonderful pond, several streams some mellow and some with more severe waterfalls, a pondless...

By: Daniel Stanza

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Water Feature in Kansas City - Video

London Landscape Inc - Front Yard Retaining Wall Project (one year later)
via YouTube Capture.

By: Adrian Brown

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London Landscape Inc - Front Yard Retaining Wall Project (one year later) - Video