West Greene to receive report on failed retaining wall

ROGERSVILLE West Greene School Board expects to receive a report by the end of the month from the consultant hired to investigate the cause of the collapse of a retaining wall at the new elementary school.

The board plans to discuss the consultants findings at its next building and grounds committee meeting Feb. 5.

The board approved several motions Thursday regarding the elementary project and recessed the meeting until 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29.

The retaining wall, which runs about 760 feet behind the new school and at its highest reaches 31 feet, collapsed Nov. 13. Nothing changed regarding the condition of the wall since then, Superintendent Thelma Szarell said Thursday.

The board in November accepted Michael Baker International LLC as an independent consultant to the district and architect. The company was asked to investigate the cause of the collapse and develop a plan to reconstruct the wall.

To review Bakers work, the board also hired its own peer review consultants, Pennsylvania Soil and Rock Inc.

The elementary school is nearly completed. Basically, everything is done, but there are a lot of very small things that still have to be addressed, Szarell said. The repair of a scratch on a finished surface, she said, is an example.

The district plans to begin using the building at the start of the next school year in August.

The board voted Thursday to pay Pennsylvania Soil and Rock Inc. $14,228.10 for work it completed between Nov. 18 and Jan. 3.

It approved a motion directing URS, the districts construction manager, to issue a construction change directive deleting certain work from the scope of work included in the agreement with Liokareas Construction Co. Inc., the general contractor.

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West Greene to receive report on failed retaining wall