Wheeler & Gray provided complete engineering and design services for reconstruction to retaining walls that supported an eighty-foot high slope in a residential neighborhood of Culver City. The slopes and parts of an existing pile, timber and lagging wall failed after saturation by winter storms. The failure damaged existing homes at the top of the slope and threatened to cause damage to other adjacent houses. Services provided included surveying, preparation of drawings and specifications, engineer’s construction cost estimates, construction support, phasing and bidding support.

Portions of the wall were built in an easement for a ninety-six inch diameter City of Los Angeles sanitary sewer trunk line. At the toe of the slope the trunk line is less than ten feet below grade. The design included a concrete bridging structure that spanned over the trunk line to distribute loads away to sub-grade below the bottom of the sewer trunk line. The structures consisted of three terraced levels of retaining walls long with some over fifteen feet in height. The structural system consisted of cantilevered steel wide-flange pile footings encased in concrete below grade that supported horizontal, pressure treated wood lagging above grade. A residence at the top of the slope had been condemned and was demolished during re-construction of the walls. The lot was used as a staging area.