News
Repairs of Failed Retaining Walls
Recently, W&B has been involved with a number of retaining wall failures that have resulted in liability claims. In one fairly dramatic case a hillside home had noticeable settling when the six-year old segmental block retaining walls that defined a down-slope flat area for an in-ground swimming pool bowed and the lower wall collapsed. In another case, a decades old concrete retaining wall that separated two hill-side properties in downtown Grand Rapids was tilting from the owner’s property (the uphill residence) onto the lower property’s garage, causing the garage to deflect more than a foot out of plumb and damaging the roof.
In the first case W&B supported the homeowner in settlement negotiations with the retaining wall and swimming pool contractors. That included taking immediate steps to stabilize the foundation of the house and the slopes that were in jeopardy of further settlement and collapse. After a legal settlement was reached we designed and supervised construction of a new lower retaining wall, repairs to the upper retaining wall and repairs to the house, pool and connecting decks. The house, pool and upper retaining wall were all saved.
In the second case, we devised a means of stabilizing and reinforcing the existing retaining wall, incorporating poured concrete sidewalls for a new lower garage into the repair. Our solution saved the wall owner’s insurance carrier over 60% of the cost of replacing the wall, the neighbor’s garage and the other structures that would have been impacted by replacing the retaining wall.
Note: Private clients – References available
RCRA Brownfield Pilot Project
The City of Muskegon Heights, Michigan has received funding through the Clean Michigan Initiative grant and loan program to fund the cleanup and demolition of the former Tricil hazardous waste management facility. The site is the City’s former wastewater treatment plant site which was leased for use as an industrial waste pretreatment facility in the mid-1970’s. The Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) was enacted in 1976. The site was operated as a RCRA facility until the early 1990’s. The site operator’s successor corporation entered bankruptcy following closure of the site – leaving the cash strapped City to deal with regulatory and financial headaches of redeveloping a RCRA site. Williams & Beck assisted the City in gaining recognition of the site as one of only 9 U.S. EPA RCRA Brownfield Prevention Pilot sites. That program was to aid in resolving the legal, financial and technical challenges associated with redeveloping a former hazardous waste management facility. Despite that designation, many Federal and State funding sources for the investigation and cleanup of the site were blocked due to the City’s RCRA liability at the site.
With diligent teamwork by the City; U.S. EPA; MI DEQ Waste Management Division; prospective developers (Mona Terrace Development); the City’s attorneys (James Enright and Theodore Williams), and the City’s engineer (Bruce Clarke, W&B) we eventually demonstrated to the State that the site could be cost effectively cleaned up and the former tanks and buildings demolished. The State provided funding for the site cleanup via a low interest loan and for demolition via a combination of loan and grant funds.
A draft Corrective Measures Implementation Plan (the RCRA equivalent of a Remedial Action Plan) has been submitted to DEQ for review. We anticipate public review and final approval of that plan in time to implement field work by Spring 2008.
Of the 9 U.S. EPA designated RCRA Brownfield Prevention Pilot sites, the City of Muskegon Heights former wastewater treatment plant site is the only one that is still active and is on target to achieve its goal of successful redevelopment of the site. W&B’s dedication and hard work has been a major contributor to the success of that effort.
Reference: Ann Wentz, Region 5 U.S. EPA
