Before
The rail-road ties wall installed twenty years ago along the side of this corner property, has been failing over the last few years at retaining the existing grade behind it. The lateral pressures of the moving soil along with the continuously expanding roots of the mature Oak and Pine trees, have additionally contributed to this structural problem, causing more bulking of the wall. Although we originally tried to preserve the trees, the most sensible solution was to remove the trees in order to excavate the area in preparation for the new wall with a proper drainage.
Challenges
Although the wall was designed by the structural engineer, during the excavation and the prep work, we have discovered many hidden issues, that forced us to make some changes to the original design. The extensive root and stumps formations discovered during excavation delayed the work significantly, along with the gas and electric lines that needed to be lowered in order to properly install the new retaining wall foundation. Missing compacted aggregate and stone dust layer under existing pavers steps to the left side of the wall needed to be addressed as well. More trees needed to be removed so we would be able to install drainage and geogrid fabric, as per engineer’s recommendations.
Construction
After some initial drawbacks, we were able to proceed with the construction of the retaining wall. The homeowner asked to incorporate in the design the original bump-outs for the future trees installation and for adding more dimension to the design. This will allow us to create an interesting effect with the illumination of the wall and plants, where there will be an opportunity to bring out more texture and geometry of both hardscaping and landscaping.