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Landscape architects know how critical it is to have properly engineering retaining walls. Still, structural engineers apparently don?EUR??,,????'???t have all the answers. A retaining wall at a construction site in Manhattan’s Upper West Side collapsed July 25, 2007, forcing hundreds of residents of a 16-floor, 288 apartment unit building to evacuate. The building is part of Park West Village built in the 1950s and 1960s. The residential building includes park space, schools and churches. Residents of all but 16 of the apartments were allowed to return to their homes. Part of the apartment building’s foundation is now exposed. A foundation contractor was working to stabilize the wall before the collpase. Blasting work at the construction site may have caused the wall to topple, but authorities are investigating. N.Y. is no stranger to collapsing retaining walls. On May 12, 2005, a 300 by 100-foot section of a retaining wall along the Hudson River in Washington Heights collapsed, sending dirt and rocks onto Riverside Drive and the northbound lanes of the Henry Hudson Parkway. ?EUR??,,????'??Lost in Lodi, Again?EUR??,,????'?? Tenants of a 23-unit apartment building in Lodi, N.J. have had to find other living accommodations since April, as a retaining wall collapsed in the back of the building, damaging homes on the avenue down the slope. The collapsed wall is suspended on trees on the hill. It will be broken into pieces and hauled up the hill. Work on the collapsed wall has been under way at the site for about six weeks. No firm date for the tenants to move back in, but they were told ?EUR??,,????'??before the first snowfall.?EUR??,,????'?? Grave Matters There are other collapsed retaining walls in the news: one in Regina, Saskatchewan and a more interesting case in Grand Rapids, Mich. There, 19 graves are being exhumed to make way for construction equipment to replace a 20-foot high retaining wall that collapsed onto Fountain Street NE in November 2005. Some area activists say the project should have been abandoned when the city learned it would have to move graves to restore the 500-foot-long wall. When It Rains… People who live in the Bridlewood Park subdivision in Live Oak, Texas don?EUR??,,????'???t have a collapsed retaining wall (yet), but have a different problem. When it rains, the runoff is supposed to drain into a pipe at the bottom of the wall, of course, but when it rains hard, the runoff cascades through and over the top of the wall. The neighborhood is justifiable concerned the wall will eventually collapse, and that some backyards may soon move into the backyards of their neighbors. Meanwhile, swamp-like conditions exist in some backyards, which is not exactly good for house foundations.
Landscape architects know how critical it is to have properly engineering retaining walls. Still, structural engineers apparently don?EUR??,,????'???t have all the answers.
A retaining wall at a construction site in Manhattan’s Upper West Side collapsed July 25, 2007, forcing hundreds of residents of a 16-floor, 288 apartment unit building to evacuate. The building is part of Park West Village built in the 1950s and 1960s. The residential building includes park space, schools and churches. Residents of all but 16 of the apartments were allowed to return to their homes. Part of the apartment building’s foundation is now exposed.
A foundation contractor was working to stabilize the wall before the collpase. Blasting work at the construction site may have caused the wall to topple, but authorities are investigating.
N.Y. is no stranger to collapsing retaining walls. On May 12, 2005, a 300 by 100-foot section of a retaining wall along the Hudson River in Washington Heights collapsed, sending dirt and rocks onto Riverside Drive and the northbound lanes of the Henry Hudson Parkway.
Tenants of a 23-unit apartment building in Lodi, N.J. have had to find other living accommodations since April, as a retaining wall collapsed in the back of the building, damaging homes on the avenue down the slope. The collapsed wall is suspended on trees on the hill. It will be broken into pieces and hauled up the hill. Work on the collapsed wall has been under way at the site for about six weeks. No firm date for the tenants to move back in, but they were told ?EUR??,,????'??before the first snowfall.?EUR??,,????'??
There are other collapsed retaining walls in the news: one in Regina, Saskatchewan and a more interesting case in Grand Rapids, Mich. There, 19 graves are being exhumed to make way for construction equipment to replace a 20-foot high retaining wall that collapsed onto Fountain Street NE in November 2005. Some area activists say the project should have been abandoned when the city learned it would have to move graves to restore the 500-foot-long wall.
People who live in the Bridlewood Park subdivision in Live Oak, Texas don?EUR??,,????'???t have a collapsed retaining wall (yet), but have a different problem. When it rains, the runoff is supposed to drain into a pipe at the bottom of the wall, of course, but when it rains hard, the runoff cascades through and over the top of the wall.
The neighborhood is justifiable concerned the wall will eventually collapse, and that some backyards may soon move into the backyards of their neighbors. Meanwhile, swamp-like conditions exist in some backyards, which is not exactly good for house foundations.
A fair number of older communites across the heartland know that under their tired old asphalt in the downtown area lurks brick streets. Liberty, Mo. public works crews unearthed a patch of the downtown asphalt to let folks see the herringbone-patterned brick street under the intersection of Franklin and Morse streets, just west of the town square. The brick dates back to the early 1900s. While a major portion of the brick is still under the asphalt, some of it was removed in 1985 to lower the grade in certain areas. Those bricks were auctioned as a bit of local history. The streets and sidewalks of downtown Liberty, Mo. take a beating from the freeze and thaw cycle and need some shaping up, although there is no money earmarked for such downtown improvement. Still, the brick unearthed by the public works crew is in decent shape, which has gotten people thinking that brick for the pavement around the square might not be a bad idea. One good thing?EUR??,,????'??+drivers slow down when they see the exposed brick.
A fair number of older communites across the heartland know that under their tired old asphalt in the downtown area lurks brick streets. Liberty, Mo. public works crews unearthed a patch of the downtown asphalt to let folks see the herringbone-patterned brick street under the intersection of Franklin and Morse streets, just west of the town square. The brick dates back to the early 1900s. While a major portion of the brick is still under the asphalt, some of it was removed in 1985 to lower the grade in certain areas. Those bricks were auctioned as a bit of local history.
The streets and sidewalks of downtown Liberty, Mo. take a beating from the freeze and thaw cycle and need some shaping up, although there is no money earmarked for such downtown improvement. Still, the brick unearthed by the public works crew is in decent shape, which has gotten people thinking that brick for the pavement around the square might not be a bad idea.
One good thing?EUR??,,????'??+drivers slow down when they see the exposed brick.
Concrete and steel joined together make for a rugged construction foundation. These are such tough materials that we (and structural engineers) often take for granted their structural integrity, provided they are built to exacting specifications. The sudden collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, however, brings home in a truly shocking manner the realization that no man-made structure is immune from the daily degradation of materials from exposure to the elements. Imagine the gut reaction of MnDOT engineers and administrators upon hearing the news of the bridge collapse! About the time LASN editors were in Minneapolis last year for the ASLA Show, MnDOT was considering bolting steel plates to the bridge supports to buttress fatigued metal. Dan Dorgan, the state’s top bridge engineer told the Minneapolis media there was enough money in the agency’s budget to affect those repairs, but MnDOT opted not to, fearing that drilling thousands of holes for the bolts would weaken the bridge. Instead, they began a bridge inspection, interrupted this summer by road repairs on the bridge. Gov. Tim Pawlenty reports MnDOT inspections convinced officials the bridge wouldn’t need to be replaced or overhauled until 2020. The governor?EUR??,,????'???s office will hire an independent consultant to examine MnDOT inspection practices. MnDOT has a big job, if not impossible. There are 13,026 bridges in the state.
Concrete and steel joined together make for a rugged construction foundation. These are such tough materials that we (and structural engineers) often take for granted their structural integrity, provided they are built to exacting specifications.
The sudden collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, however, brings home in a truly shocking manner the realization that no man-made structure is immune from the daily degradation of materials from exposure to the elements. Imagine the gut reaction of MnDOT engineers and administrators upon hearing the news of the bridge collapse!
About the time LASN editors were in Minneapolis last year for the ASLA Show, MnDOT was considering bolting steel plates to the bridge supports to buttress fatigued metal. Dan Dorgan, the state’s top bridge engineer told the Minneapolis media there was enough money in the agency’s budget to affect those repairs, but MnDOT opted not to, fearing that drilling thousands of holes for the bolts would weaken the bridge. Instead, they began a bridge inspection, interrupted this summer by road repairs on the bridge.
Gov. Tim Pawlenty reports MnDOT inspections convinced officials the bridge wouldn’t need to be replaced or overhauled until 2020. The governor?EUR??,,????'???s office will hire an independent consultant to examine MnDOT inspection practices. MnDOT has a big job, if not impossible. There are 13,026 bridges in the state.
Francisco Uviña, University of New Mexico
Hardscape Oasis in Litchfield Park
Ash Nochian, Ph.D. Landscape Architect
November 12th, 2025
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