Retaining Wall

Posted Mon May 3, 2010 in Engineering

We spent the day with the kids here in Denver. It started with breakfast at Perkins, which is next to the La Quinta. We puttered around the room, with the boys playing XBox and the remainder of us either kibitzing or napping. I prefer the napping.

We stepped out of the room to go find a used bookstore DiL heard about. Older Son talked about riding the K-rail that bounds the west side of the hotel property. While we were walking the rail, I noticed a lot of tension cracks in the asphalt. The tension cracks mean that the foundation failed. My suspicion is that a retaining wall shifted.

I stepped to the south end of the K-rail and looked. Sure enough, the segment of the cantilever retaining wall north from the section on which I stood was shifted, maybe three inches or so. The wall was tilted from the base. So, either the steel connection at the footing was weak or broken, or the design was insufficient to contain the loading on the backfill.

I pointed these things out to Older Son. I’m not sure what he thought, but he has enough mechanical sense to see that the tilting was a bad thing and not what was supposed to happen.

I doubt the foundation of the hotel structure is affected. I see no sign of cracking that would so indicate. So, it’s just a local issue and probably not terribly significant, except for the hotel’s pavement on the west side of their building.

The bookstore was fun, but I was overwhelmed. There was too much to take in and so I wandered a bit, then returned to the car to rest. We grabbed a bite at the A&W nearby, then returned to the hotel, where I promptly fell asleep. I slept hard for a couple of hours, which is unusual for me. I normally power-nap in the afternoon, but I guess all the travel finally caught up with me.

I don’t know what Monday will bring, but I suspect we’ll find something to do. Then Tuesday we head out hard again. I have some work to finish up and then work on whatever is next.