I'm currently working to stabilize a retaining wall that has the same general failure pattern, just in slow-motion over the past 15 years. The suspected issue there is that the designer took credit for passive pressure at the toe, but that passive resistance was not available due to the wall being perched on the top of a steep slope. Could the NJ wall have been similarly designed with a passive pressure that the sloped toe could not deliver?
I drove by this over the weekend. As we were pulling onto 295 I turned to my wife and said "I wonder if we'll drive past the collapsed portion", not realizing that it was only about 1/2 mile ahead of us. I snapped a couple of pictures, but there wasn't much to see. The wall has been removed where it was deflected. Other than that, it looked pretty much the same as the picture above to me.
Thanks for the update. On highway projects, usually there’s a long review of the situation and proposed fix before the contractor is allowed to replace the failed section. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t repaired until the summer.
