Airport: Two-month repair timeline for retaining wall

Tonya Maxwell, tmaxwell@citizen-times.com 5:08 p.m. EST January 1, 2015

Three backhoes were used to excavate soil around a collapsed retaining wall at the Asheville Regional Airport on New Years Day morning. The general contractor, Thalle Construction Co. of Hillsborough, is in the process of obtaining a county construction permit after failing to apply for one at the projects start.(Photo: Tonya Maxwell/tmaxwell@citizen-times.com)

ASHEVILLE Repairs on a partially collapsed retaining wall at the Asheville Regional Airport, one that was built without a county permit and left nearby wetlands laden with sediment, are expected to take about eight weeks, according to airport officials.

The two-month time frame includes approval for a permit and ordering and manufacturing new wall panels, airport spokeswoman Tina Kinsey wrote in an email.

Contractors also have outlined a repair plan that addresses drainage, excavation and installation of new concrete panels, most about five feet square and six inches thick. The document calls for all panels that have shifted or are damaged to be replaced.

Four stories tall at its peak and nearly one-fourth of a mile long, the wall buckled on one end and collapsed on the other on Christmas Eve following rains. Fill dirt from behind the structure washed across Ferncliff Park Drive and into wetlands adjacent to the French Broad River, prompting the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to issue a violation notice for the leaching sediment.

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Airport: Two-month repair timeline for retaining wall