4:26pm, Sun 11 May 2014 Last updated Sun 11 May 2014

A retaining wall has collapsed at a recycling plant in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao on Saturday, killing 18 people.

The wall crushed a house with 40 people in it, the Qingdao government information office said.

The wall have been waterlogged in a recent rain storm.

China's eastern coastal and southern regions have been drenched by heavy rains in recent days.

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18 people crushed to death as wall collapses in China

The Canadian Press - ONLINE EDITION

By: The Associated Press

Sunday, May. 11, 2014 at 5:12 AM | Comments: 0

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In this photo taken by mobile phone, firefighters pull out a victim following a wall collapse in Qingdao in east China's Shandong province Sunday, May 11, 2014. The wall collapse triggered by heavy rains at a recycling plant killed 18 people and injured three others early Sunday in the eastern city of Qingdao, state media reported. (AP Photo) CHINA OUT

BEIJING, China - Heavy rain caused a retaining wall to collapse at a recycling plant in the eastern Chinese city of Qingdao on Sunday, killing 18 people, state media reported.

The wall that collapsed crushed a house for workers in which 40 people were gathered, the Qingdao government information office said.

The wall collapsed due to waterlogging after a rainstorm, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It said 18 people were killed and three others were injured.

Authorities were investigating the collapse.

China's eastern coastal and southern regions have been drenched by heavy rains in recent days. Two other deaths in Hunan province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region were linked to the rains as flooding and landslides hit swaths of the country.

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Wall collapses amid heavy rain at recycling plant in eastern China, killing 18 people

High retaining wall safety hazard

By: Gerald Warren

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High retaining wall safety hazard - Video

The workplace death of a young pipe layer in Burnaby is now the subject of a criminal investigation by police.

WorkSafeBC confirmed Thursday it has referred the investigation into the Oct. 11, 2012, incident which killed one man and injured another to Burnaby RCMP.

Staff Sergeant Major John Buis said his detachment will now review WorkSafeBCs investigation to determine if there is any criminality involved.

It will be separate and independent, but relying on a lot of things that they came up with, he said. And, obviously, if we have to re-interview people or get other evidence, [we will].

Jeffrey Caron and Thomas Richer were in an excavation pit north of Edinburgh Street installing a storm and sanitation line when a concrete retaining wall adjacent to the pit collapsed.

According to the WorkSafeBC report, Mr. Richer had raised concerns about the conditions twice before: first on Oct. 3, when he told the foreman he thought ground conditions in the pit had changed to a more sandy material, and then again on the morning of the accident, when he remarked, The wall looks like it has shifted. Both times, the foreman said not to worry and keep working, according to the report.

After the second complaint, the pipe layers re-entered the pit. Minutes later, the concrete wall fell. It pinned Mr. Caron, a 28-year-old originally from Calgary, and he later died of his injuries. Mr. Richer escaped but suffered serious physical injuries and significant mental trauma, according to the report.

It cited the City of Burnaby, as well as firms J. Cote & Son Excavating Ltd., Vector Engineering Services Ltd. and Earthbitat Engineering Inc. for failing to recognize and address known hazards at the workplace. Lack of training, lack of communication about the concrete wall, ineffective safety program management and the fact the foreman failed to act on Mr. Richers concerns also contributed to the fatal accident, the report stated.

WorkSafeBC, which has yet to impose any penalties, is no longer commenting on the matter, instead referring all questions to the Mounties. We dont want to comment because its under investigation by RCMP, spokeswoman Megan Johnston said.

Staff Sgt. Buis said it is rare for such investigations to be referred to his detachment. These dont happen that frequently, he said. I dont recall many, if any, here in Burnaby.

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RCMP to review WorkSafeBCs probe into 2012 death of Burnaby pipe layer

Keystone CountryManor: Product Profile
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Keystone CountryManor: Product Profile - Video

Keystone Compac: Product Profile
A contractor favorite, Keystone Compac unit is the number one specified commercial retaining wall product on the market. Perfect for everything from backyard walls to larger commercial structures,...

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Keystone Compac: Product Profile - Video

Keystone Legacy Stone: Product Profile
The Keystone Legacy Stone wall is a large format retaining wall unit ideal for retaining walls up to 3 feet high. Keystone Retaining Wall Systems uses patented JAWS Technology to give each...

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Keystone Legacy Stone: Product Profile - Video

Several steps away from the crumbling edge of East 26th Street in Charles Village, a construction worker slowly unrolled a long yellow measuring tape into a circular hole about the size of a sewer manhole lid.

Foot after foot of the tape disappeared as he sought to learn the depth of the hole being bored straight down into the earth by a hulking orange drilling machine anchored not far from St. Paul Street.

Another worker at the block-long construction site Tuesday said the hole is the first of many that will be cut into the street as part of a new design to keep East 26th Street and the earth beneath it from spilling down onto the railroad tracks, which run parallel to the street, as they did last week when a century-old retaining wall collapsed amid heavy rain.

Adrienne Barnes, a city Transportation Department spokeswoman, said the city hired contractors to replace the retaining wall and repair the street. She said that 65 "borings" or "piles" are being inserted into the street by contractors hired by the city.

Such holes can be filled with steel beams or underground caissons to bolster ground stability and anchor retaining walls, experts said.

Barnes said the contract for the work is not finalized and there is no estimate of the cost or other specifics about the project.

"This is an emergency. It wasn't anything we planned for or anything that was projected. It was something we had to do," Barnes said. "We don't have any final numbers yet. Our job is to restore the neighborhood. We need to do whatever we need to do."

Jack Temple, who lives at the corner of East 26th and St. Paul, said residents were told at an informational meeting Sunday that "barring setbacks," the project could take as little as three weeks, far shorter than the 40 days they were told they might be displaced from their homes. In the meantime, Temple who said he "absolutely" appreciates the quick start to repairs is staying in a Towson hotel room provided by the city.

The city is proceeding with the work despite questions about who may be responsible for the accident, which sent the masonry wall, tons of earth and asphalt as well as eight cars tumbling onto the railroad tracks below. The city and CSX Transportation, which owns the tracks, have tussled in the past about who is responsible for maintaining the walls.

Bryan Rhode, CSX's regional vice president for state government affairs, said in a statement that the city is "leading the efforts in stabilizing the site, supporting the needs of residents and developing plans for reconstruction," and that the railroad is "grateful and supportive of the city's actions in focusing on those immediate requirements."

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Emergency construction underway on new 26th Street retaining wall | VIDEO

May 7, 2014 11:15 PM Share with others:

By Jon Schmitz / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Norfolk Southern Railway has begun building a retaining wall along its tracks beneath the Mount Washington hillside that gave way last month, burying the rail line.

Spokesman David Pidgeon said the wall will be 320 feet long and take about three weeks to complete. Crews were on the site, adjacent to the Duquesne Incline, erecting piles and moving earth this week.

A section of hillside the length of a football field tore loose on April 8, sending a massive amount of mud and trees across the tracks, which run parallel to West Carson Street.

No one was injured. Freight traffic was interrupted for several hours while Norfolk Southern and city crews cleared the tracks.

Heavy rain that preceded the slide may have saturated the soil and weakened the hillside, an engineer for the city said.

Mr. Pidgeon said the railroad would not comment about the cost of the damage and the retaining wall or whether it would seek reimbursement from the city, which owns the hillside.

A spokesman for the city's Bureau of Building Inspection said the agency is continuing to work with property owners of structures located on Grandview Avenue above the slide. None of the engineering reports submitted on behalf of those buildings has indicated there are any structural issues.

Jon Schmitz: jschmitz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1868.

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Work starts on wall to protect Pittsburgh rail line

Lee Truelove describes watching the pavement give way beneath several cars parked on 26th Street between Charles and St. Paul. (Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun video)

One week after the collapse of a large retaining wall between CSX Transportation railroad tracks and East 26th Street in Charles Village, city officials said they still had not determined who was responsible for the wall or who will pay the cost to repair it.

Officials said they are still poring over decades of documents, including a 1998 agreement between the city and CSX showing that, at least once in the past, they cooperated to repair retaining walls in the neighborhood.

Responsibility for last week's wall failure, which dumped half the block and eight cars onto the railroad tracks below and forced residents of 19 homes to evacuate the area, has been a key question. Repair costs could top $1 million, and residents said they had raised concerns about cracks and sinking asphalt along the street for years.

The 1998 agreement, released in response to a request from The Baltimore Sun, shows the city and the railroad split an estimated $880,000 bill for repairs to a stretch of retention walls just a couple of blocks from last week's collapse and along the same string of railroad cuts that runs parallel to East 26th Street.

CSX and city property lines intersect across the city.

The company could not be reached to comment Wednesday.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Transportation Director William Johnson said at a news conference at the site Wednesday that many questions, including who should maintain the wall, remained unanswered. The mayor said she was focused on helping displaced residents, and that she directed city agencies to work quickly to find answers.

Johnson said new ground-penetrating radar testing of St. Paul and North Charles streets, which run past and perpendicular to East 26th, showed no major structural concerns, and that survey crews continue to monitor any movement on East 26th.

Radar testing would not be conclusive on East 26th, he said, because the radar waves interacting with the uneven, exposed-dirt slope of the street would yield unclear images.

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City officials still unclear on responsibility for railroad landslide