Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf and Boardwalk (Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

SANTA CRUZ (KCBS) Heavy rain has pushed the San Lorenzo River dangerously close to the retaining wall of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, officials said Thursday.

Ten inches of rain in the Santa Cruz Mountains since Tuesday has altered the course of the San Lorenzo so that it now runs parallel to the amusement park.

KCBS Matt Bigler Reports:

River Threatens Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

City crews have been scrambling to contain overflow from the swollen river as it edges towards the concrete retaining wall that separates the park from the beach. On Wednesday, a wooden staircase to the beach was ripped apart by the water and washed into the ocean.

Amusement park employees spent the day building up piles of sand on the beach to prevent water from seeping under the Boardwalk itself and causing even more damage, said Boardwalk spokesman Mark Lipton.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

36.964921 -122.013773

Read more:
Swollen River Threatens Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

Update: Woman struck by car on Syracuse's Northside dies; driver charged with vehicular homicide, DWI

Earlier:

Syracuse, NY As neighbors watched, a woman standing on sidewalk in the 600 block East Division Street was critically injured shortly before noon when a car struck her, pinning her against a retaining wall, Syracuse police said.

Police have not yet identified the victim, who they said was in her 50s.

The name of the driver, who police said was a 42-year-old woman, has also not been released.

The crash occurred when a black Toyota driving north on East Division Street crested the hill and crashed into a parked white car, police said. The sound of the crash drew neighbors out to the street.

We heard a loud BOOM! said Nate Thomas, 31, who is visiting from Michigan was relaxing at his sisters house at 643 E. Division St.

Thomas, his sister and brother-in-law went to the porch to see what was going on.

The Toyota had become entangled with the white car after the collision, Thomas said.

The black car was stuck to the white car, he said.

More here:
Woman critically injured in Syracuse when car pins her to retaining wall

SCHERTZ, Texas--Residents living in the Fairhaven subdivision have been asking builder Pulte to buy back their homes for awhile now.

They told News 4 WOAI they are concerned a retaining wall in their neighborhood could come tumbling down. "I feel this is unsafe, the wall is already starting to separate, " said homeowner Bruce Touve.

Neighbors said the cracks and separation along the retaining walls isn't sitting well with them.

"It's just a constant worry, you know what's going to happen when we get a huge storm, or huge down pour, is this all going to come crumbling down?, " said homeowner Priscilla Mendoza.

In a letter to News 4 WOAI, Pulte stated the wall is performing as designed. The letter went on to say "Fairhaven's retaining wall system uses the same design principals as the Texas Department of Transportation." Further more the wall was designed by a licensed professional engineer for that specific location.

Homeowners still don't feel the wall is safe, and want out of their homes.

Go here to read the rest:
Residents fear another retaining wall disaster

One area hit particularly hard by the early morning rain was Kaimuki.

The heavy rain turned some streets into streams.

"16th (Avenue) was a river, said Linda Parker. I live on the bottom of 16th. So all the water comes all the way down. And it was, the water was at least to the bottom of everybody's car."

Linda said the heavy rain proved not all vehicles are created equal.

"Geez there must have been about this much water through all of 16th because the cars, the water was up to about here on the tires. And if it was an S.U.V they'd just go right through it, but the poor little mini coopers they had to go real slow, she said.

All the rain was unlike anything Parker had seen before. "In a while that's for sure. We've been here four years on this street, and it's been this bad once before."

Just over the hill an apartment complex on Palani Avenue plagued by frequent flooding in the past is back underwater.

The low lying parking lot sits beside a faulty drain.

The city has planed a fix for the area, but the nearly two million dollar project is still pending.

It wasn't just flooded streets or standing water that folks had to look out for.

Read more:
Rain brings down retaining wall in Kaimuki; home left in precarious spot

SCHERTZ, Texas--Residents living in the Fairhaven subdivision have been asking builder Pulte to buy back their homes for awhile now.

They told News 4 WOAI they are concerned a retaining wall in their neighborhood could come tumbling down. "I feel this is unsafe, the wall is already starting to separate, " said homeowner Bruce Touve.

Neighbors said the cracks and separation along the retaining walls isn't sitting well with them.

"It's just a constant worry, you know what's going to happen when we get a huge storm, or huge down pour, is this all going to come crumbling down?, " said homeowner Priscilla Mendoza.

In a letter to News 4 WOAI, Pulte stated the wall is performing as designed. The letter went on to say "Fairhaven's retaining wall system uses the same design principals as the Texas Department of Transportation." Further more the wall was designed by a licensed professional engineer for that specific location.

Homeowners still don't feel the wall is safe, and want out of their homes.

Read the original here:
Fairhaven residents concerned over neighborhood retaining wall

BRECKSVILLE - The city is accepting bids through 11 a.m. March 14 for the Wiese Road retaining wall repair and replacement project.

According to City Engineer Gerry Wise, it is a six-month contract and the road will likely be closed for up to four months starting in June. Brecksville received a $233,800 State Capital Improvement Program grant and a $233,800 loan in 2011 for the project, which at the time was estimated to cost nearly $1.17 million.

The city currently has $1.2 million budgeted for the project, but an updated estimate now places the expected cost at around $1.32 million.

The reason for the cost increase is additional sewer work on the road that was added to the project.

The project will address two walls. One will be repaired and refinished while the other will be completely replaced, since it was deemed not worth salvaging.

In its place will be a soldier pile wall, similar to a sound barrier along Interstate 77, anchored by I-beams rising 12 feet above the ground. Between the I-beams will be 8-foot to 10-foot concrete structural panels.

The original walls were built in 1938 and 1939 and we would hope for a similar lifetime for this one, Wise said.

A stacked-stone textured pattern, to be chosen by the mayor, will add aesthetic appeal to wall in addition to its structural stability.

The grant and loan come from the Ohio Public Works Commission via the District One Public Works Integrating Committee program which is handled by the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission.

Contact this reporter at 216-986-6065 or at rrozboril@sunnews.com

Read more from the original source:
Brecksville's Wiese Road retaining wall work to begin in June

The city of Adrian is planning to rebuild the retaining wall along one bank of the South Branch of the River Raisin in Comstock Park, possibly as soon as this summer.

The wall, which holds up the steep embankment on the southeast side of the river, is starting to deteriorate, city parks and recreation director Mark Gasche said.

Its showing signs of failure, Gasche said.

The wall was built in 1974 and the city has been monitoring it for about five years, knowing it would need to be replaced, Gasche said.

There is $500,000 in the upcoming fiscal year capital budget to replace the wall, Gasche said.

The existing wall is about 460 feet long and is constructed of horizontal timbers held in place by steel H beams driven deep into the river bank. The wall ranges in height from about 12 feet to 15 feet, Gasche said.

The city would be satisfied to have the new wall built the same way as the existing wall, or possibly have a concrete or block wall, Gasche said.

For aesthetic reasons, the city would prefer not to have a wall of steel sheets driven into the ground, or to have terraced rocks held in place by heavy wire such as now exists on the opposite bank of the river, Gasche said. The terraced rocks probably would require too much space, he said.

At its Feb. 20 meeting, the Adrian City Commission approved a $29,815 bid by Rowe Professional Services Co. of Flint to do design engineering for the new wall.

Rowe already has contacted the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality about permits for the work, Gasche said. MDEQ has jurisdiction because the project involves the river.

See the original post:
City to rebuild Comstock Park retaining wall

Posted: 11:24 am Tue, February 28, 2012
By American Council of Engineering Companies of Minnesota 
Tags: Encompass Inc., Howard Noziska, Jerry Theis, Kent Jones, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Theis Construction

At St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, overlooking Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis, rebar and stainless steel ties designed by Encompass Inc. were installed in a difficult retaining wall project. (Submitted photos)

Location: 1917 Logan Ave. S., Minneapolis

Firm: Encompass Inc., Eden Prairie

Completion date: November 2011

Project team: Howard Noziska, Kent Jones, Encompass Inc.; Jerry Theis, Theis Construction

Editor’s note: The Feats of Engineering feature, which runs occasionally in Finance & Commerce, features projects completed by members of the American Council of Engineering Companies of Minnesota. The content comes from ACEC and the firms.

Aging, structurally unsound retaining walls are a relatively common problem in Minneapolis. The leaning wall behind St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, holding back the prominent hill overlooking Lake of the Isles on which the landmark church was built, posed extraordinary problems — “a challenge of almost biblical proportions,” said Howard Noziska, president of Encompass Inc., the Eden Prairie-based engineering and forensic analysis firm retained to find a solution.

Noziska describes the steepness of St. Paul’s site as “scary.” But the steepness was only part of the challenge in fixing the collapsing wall and stabilizing the hill. Compounding the problem was an extremely restricted location that not only offered physical barriers — stairs blocking access to the wall — but religious and cultural barriers as well, in the form of the buried cremains of deceased members of the congregation and the integrity of a historic structure that had to be assured.

Conditions were exacerbated by the fact that small trees planted many years ago were now fully grown, with their roots a major part of the problem, and several seasons of record snowfalls and heavy rain had loaded the soil with moisture. Taken together, all of these conditions were increasing both the vertical and lateral loads on the retaining wall itself — a structure a foot thick, 6 feet high and nearly 60 feet long.

“The hill was doing what comes naturally,” said Noziska, “sliding, moving downhill, and putting great pressure on the old retaining wall and related sidewalks and stairways. Uncorrected, it presented a potential danger to churchgoers as well as a threat to the church structure itself.”

Eden Prairie-based Encompass Inc. designed and supervised the installation by Theis Construction of a series of “helical piers” — large screw-like rods, twisted into the soil to provide the counterbalancing forces the retaining wall needed to restrain and stabilize the soil behind the wall.

Any solution had to be affordable for a congregation with limited resources, yet one that would endure for decades. Encompass’ answer was a creative combination of advanced engineering thinking and old-fashioned common sense.

The firm designed and supervised the installation by Theis Construction of a series of “helical piers” — large screw-like rods, twisted into the soil to provide the counterbalancing forces the retaining wall needed to restrain and stabilize the soil behind the wall. This created counterforces to the hillside’s natural inclination to keep sliding and pressuring the wall itself.

A new foot-thick reinforced concrete wall with new buttresses was strengthened by the installation of extensive rebar reinforcing rods.

Because of the accessibility problem, all of the concrete required for construction had to be “bucketed” up the hillside. To reach the difficult work area, temporary bridges were built across the steep stairways, sufficient to provide access to the work area by Bobcat without blocking entry to the church for services.

The result? “A strong new retaining wall that will serve the congregation and protect St. Paul’s historic structure for decades into the future,” Noziska said.

To submit projects for consideration in Feats of Engineering, please email the following information to David Oxley, ACEC/MN executive director, at doxley@acecmn.org: firm name, project name, location and description; projected or actual completion date; firm project team and overall project team; additional details of interest to the architecture, engineering and design community; phone number and email address for a project. High-resolution renderings or photographs (minimum of 1MB) also should be submitted. For more information, call 952-593-5533.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 at 11:24 am and is filed under Feats of Engineering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Link:
Feats of Engineering – Retaining wall at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

The city of Keyser has warned First United Bank, owner of the Grand Central Business Center, that an old retaining wall at the southeast corner of the Business Center's property is failing and in imminent danger of collapsing, posing a threat to children who often play in the area.
Councilman Bill Roy first drew attention to the problem about six months ago. Since then, he reported at the Feb. 22 City Council meeting, cracks in the stone-block wall have widened and the wall has further bowed outward. He said the wall needs to be repaired before someone gets hurt.
“They're going to fool around and get a kid killed,” he said.
Following up on Roy's comments, Mayor Randy Amtower said he had run into the CEO of First United and mentioned the failing wall to him in person. First United is the lien holder to Grand Central Business Center, which was the old Keyser High School. “They've been informed all the way to the top,” Amtower said.
The mayor directed staff to prepare a letter to the bank, and said that if action is not taken soon, the city
will take the matter to another level, implying legal action against the bank.

Read more:
City puts Grand Central on notice for deteriorating wall

Crew members push driver Danica Patrick's backup car to inspection before practice for Sunday's NASCAR Daytona 500 auto race in Daytona Beach, Fla., Friday, Feb. 24, 2012.

Terry Renna, Associated Press

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — As her car hurtled out of control toward the inside retaining wall at Daytona International Speedway, Danica Patrick did a split-second survey of her situation.

With no chance of avoiding a head-on collision at nearly 190 mph, Patrick prepared for the impact. She took her hands off her steering wheel and pulled them close to her body. In her mind, she had clenched her arms tight near her shoulder harnesses.

In reality, the in-car camera showed her hands were much higher, almost at her face. And just like that the talk shifted from her otherwise clean run in Thursday's qualifying race to a discussion about the pretty girl who covered her eyes right before a big scary accident.

It didn't matter that it wasn't true.

"In IndyCars, you learn to take your hands off the wheel," Patrick explained Friday. "I was trained when there is no saving it and no hope, you let go. That's what I did.

"No, I wasn't covering my eyes. But, yes, I did close them as I got to the wall. I didn't want my eyes to pop out of my head."

Everything Patrick does this season, her first full year in NASCAR, will be scrutinized. She's one of the most popular athletes on the planet, but her spotty racing resume makes her an easy target for hard-core racing fans who consider her an overhyped driver unworthy of the attention she receives.

She's found often on ESPN, which broadcasts the bulk of Patrick's races. She has dabbled the last two years in the Nationwide Series and will run the full schedule this year for JR Motorsports. She also will make her Sprint Cup Series debut in Sunday's season-opening Daytona 500, the first of 10 scheduled events this season for Stewart-Haas Racing.

So, it's easy to understand why the traditional auto racing fan is concerned that ESPN might overwhelm fans with its interest in "Danicamania."

"Our coverage is in balance with what we believe the audience interest is," said Rich Feinberg, ESPN vice president of motorsports.

Former NASCAR champion turned ESPN analyst Dale Jarrett understands the conundrum facing Patrick and her move to NASCAR, which openly admits it hopes she drives ratings and attracts new fans. She'll be heavily featured in Saturday's season-opening Nationwide race at Daytona.

Follow this link:
NASCAR spotlight shines bright on Danica Patrick