Interesting Retaining Wall Failure 1

[mjr6550]

The links below have a story regarding a retaining wall failure and landslide. It appears that they may have cut some corners on the engineering or construction.

http://www.star-telegram.com/462/story/1924034.html

http://galleries.statesman.com/gallery/landslide-threatens-nw-san-antonio-homes-01/#5

 

[hokie66]

This one is getting wide distribution across forums on the site.
thread158-263647
thread507-263821
thread255-263740

 

[msucog]

imagine that...tiered rubble wall (and looks very thin for the height) with storm structures right next to it and it's falling down...

 

[msucog]

i'd bet money it was designed assuming ideal soil conditions with liberal assumptions on the design parameters and then in construction, the backfill was thrown in with minimal care to details about the backfill materials, compaction, watertight storm structures, wall dimensions itself, etc. and i would almost be willing to be the designer disclaimed much of their responsibility on the owner, owner's rep, contractor and/or homeowner. in other words, i think it's a generic wall "design" with no/little backup data to substantiate the assumptions made by the designer...but they'll point fingers at everyone else that had even the most remote participation in the project.

 

[msucog]

here's a link i ran across on another site. it gives some explanation (that may or may not be in links above-i didn't go through each one) related to the cause of the failure.

http://daveslandslideblog.blogspot.com/