Crumbling retaining walls barely holding for almost two years now

Resident concerned about stressed retaining walls that appear as if they’ll easily collapse in storm

By Terri Harber • November 14, 2016 8:00 pm
A retaining wall buckles toward the road on the 500 block of 1st Avenue. One of the residents on the other side of the street is frustrated that little has been done to shore up hillside and worries it could come down soon if long-term repairs aren’t completed soon. (Terri Harber|The Daily World)
A retaining wall buckles toward the road on the 500 block of 1st Avenue. One of the residents on the other side of the street is frustrated that little has been done to shore up hillside and worries it could come down soon if long-term repairs aren’t completed soon. (Terri Harber|The Daily World)

A really wet October and November — traditionally being the wettest month each year — further worries an Aberdeen man living downhill from retaining walls buckling and barely holding back the ground behind him and neighbors now for almost two years.

Michael Worden, who resides on the 500 block of Hanna Avenue, is running out of patience and wants to see something done to ensure the safety of residents there. The back of his home is across the street from retaining walls that started failing after a single-day storm in January 2015 brought with it several inches of rain.

“The hillside came down overnight,” Worden explained as he described what happened behind his home. “The water main and sewer were both broken. The water was running down the street like a small river.”

Some things have been done at the location since the storms occurred almost two years ago. The city has already reconnected its sewer line and repaired its water main. The sewer pipe, however, remains above ground and exposed, Worden said.

“Earth from the slide remains sitting on and partially blocking 1st Avenue,” he said. “The sidewalk is buckled, covered with dirt and impassable, and both retaining walls have been destroyed.”

Signs to warn drivers about the conditions on 1st Avenue were posted by the city soon after the damage was discovered. There was a ‘Road Closed’ sign, but it was updated long ago with one that reads ‘One Lane Road Ahead.’

“There’s still mud and debris in the street,” Worden said.

Part of the problem in the delay of repairing the retaining walls has been determining who owns the lower wall, said Rick Sangder, the city’s public works director.

“It’s on the right-of-way line,” Sangder explained. “And there’s no documents on file that show whether it was the city’s or the homeowner’s property.”

Sangder said the city has been waiting to hear from its insurer before repair work could commence and they keep asking for more information. A number of other sites were damaged during the same storm but this is a unique situation because so many parties are involved, he pointed out.

The city also contends work done earlier by one of the property owners was the cause of the resulting damage. One of the homeowners, however, said the city’s utility line caused the problem.

The city’s pipe, said Barbara Weber who owns 506 1st St., “had leaked under the neighbor’s retaining wall.”

Weber lists a local post office box as an address but lives out of town so she hasn’t seen the damage herself. She owns multiple properties around the region and has a local property manager who has been in contact with the city about the matter.

“I’ve been waiting to hear when the city was going to repair it, too,” Weber said.

Worden simply wants to see the wall repaired. The city should be orchestrating repairs it and the property owners are going to have to work together to accomplish, Worden stressed.

“Children play on these walls and could get hurt if there’s further hillside movement,” he said. “The current situation makes at least two residences unmarketable and greatly reduces the value of others. The entire hillside could shift, causing more catastrophic damage, without reinforcement or repair.”