Retaining Wall Archives - Page 139 of 253 - Home Builder Developer, Interior Renovation and Design Home Builder Developer, Interior Renovation and Design

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.

See the original post here:
City officials still unclear on responsibility for Charles Village landslide | VIDEO

Baltimore "sinkhole" Swallows Car with Train
Baltimore Mayor says a giant hole that swallowed dozens of cars on Wednesday is the result of a collapsed retaining wall.

By: Anee Videos

Continued here:
Baltimore "sinkhole" Swallows Car with Train - Video

Beaver Dam Raceway Scheffler Crash 5-3-14
Don Scheffler made heavy head-on contact with the turn 1 outer concrete retaining wall before violently rolling over and coming to rest upside down.

By: KulasJr8

Continued here:
Beaver Dam Raceway Scheffler Crash 5-3-14 - 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."

See original here:
Emergency construction underway on new, modern retaining wall after landslide