retaining wall in danger from gas company gopher?


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Old 06-22-12, 05:20 AM
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retaining wall in danger from gas company gopher?

getting a gas line installed but i have tons of rock in my yard and complicating things is a 60 ft long 6 ft tall stone wall. it fell in 96 and was rebuilt in 97. though i'm confident it was built for a lifetime, now i wonder what 2 days of gophering near and under it will do to it structurally?

also now i see they are drilling thru the footer with their 3 ft bit and that doesnt seem like a good idea
 

Last edited by luckydriver; 06-22-12 at 07:31 AM.
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Old 06-22-12, 07:02 AM
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If the wall is deep enough into the ground & had steel reinforcements, there shouldn't be a problem.
 
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Old 06-22-12, 07:33 AM
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well the guy that rebuilt it said the footer was ok so he didnt touch that. just built the stone wall and put a few feet of stone behind it for drainage as well as pipes out the front.
 
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Old 06-22-12, 07:50 AM
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I wouldn't worry about but I would ask the gas line installers how they deal with the wall. Don't act is if you think it might fall.
 
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Old 06-22-12, 08:27 AM
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i asked if they had difficult walls like this and he said no, never this bad..i must have a ton of rock or thick footer..he also said they cant dig behind the wall because if it falls they are responsible so just will have to gopher it until the cows come home i guess.hoping they fill it back up with concrete at least



 
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Old 06-22-12, 09:38 AM
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now they are using a jackhammer to break thru the rest of the footer..it's about 1 ft deep then the dirt under it..they said they will put stone under there and compact the heck out of it, not put concrete in the hole. said it's how they build the road and that never collapses
 
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Old 06-22-12, 05:25 PM
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It should be okay.
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Old 06-23-12, 03:29 PM
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Getting proper compaction under the stone wall won't be easy. Casing the gas line in a larger run of pipe, then backfilling with flowable fill (weak concrete) would be the smart way to go.

Hope you took some "before" (and are taking "during") pictures to document things. They will come in very handy when the wall collapses, and the gas company says they are not responsible for making repairs, as it's an installation through a private facility that you gave your blessing to (by watching them do the work and not saying a word).
 
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Old 06-24-12, 04:39 AM
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Bridgeman45 Why are so sure that the wall will collapse? BTW, he took pictures, scroll down to see them.
 
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Old 06-24-12, 10:24 AM
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I didn't see any pix of how things looked before the work started, or how the backfill was placed/compacted, or how the thing looked buttoned up, etc. I grew up in an area that had lots of dry-stack rubble masonry (rock) walls (including one in my own backyard that collapsed after the gas company came through it with their lateral to the house), and have seen quite a few other examples of utility-caused "destruction" during my working career--classic example was a jagged, 2-ft. diameter hole blasted through the concrete wall of one of my bridges in Tijeras Canyon in NM, including flame-cutting all of the rebar that was in their way. I had to place some nasty phone calls, threatening to revoke their utility-egress permit, to get the thing repaired. In areas of the country where I've lived and worked, more often than not, no public agency was ever monitoring or inspecting utility construction, leaving it up to the owner(s) to make sure things were done in a workman-like manner.
 
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Old 06-24-12, 06:09 PM
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Talking about monitoring work, I was stopped at a light & some workers were digging with a backhoe right in front of a sign, on a light pole, that said, Gas pipes in area. Expose by hand. That light couldn't turn green soon enough, for me.
 
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Old 06-25-12, 06:06 AM
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welp just talked to them..they brought a mini backhoe so have another plan. they are horizontally jackhammering because the footer is much wider than the wall..they said they are used to just stone bases...once they break thru the footer they will gopher up..then depending where the gopher comes into the yard they will use their mini backhoe to dig the rest of the pipe..they will then encase the pipe in 1.25 casing and pour concrete under the wall

they hope to get done today..really dont want another day..so we will see
 
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Old 06-25-12, 11:14 AM
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200 lb of concrete were pounded under the wall. hope it stays

they are done and thankful to get done. i dont blame them a bit. real PITA job
 
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Old 06-25-12, 01:30 PM
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Are you saying the consistency was such that it had to be "pounded" into place, instead of pouring as is done with most conventional concrete or flowable fill? If it was indeed that dry, then you would do yourself and your wall a big favor by taking a soaker hose to it for a few hours, in an attempt to get some hydration water into the mix to give it adequate strength.
 
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Old 06-25-12, 02:24 PM
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just a term i used. i didnt see the product at all except laying there in the bags before it was mixed
 
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Old 07-01-12, 04:43 AM
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