Removed the old stone and a few feet of slope behind original wall
Built a GCS® wall and replaced most of the original stone pieces
Blended new stone to finish the project
In a suburb outside of Columbus, Ohio an existing stacked stone retaining wall (circa 1960) at the entrance of an upscale subdivision needed to be replaced. The wall was crumbling due to gravity, and the earth pressures were pushing the wall out at the bottom causing the entire wall to deform. The client wanted to maintain the historic look of the wall, so our goal was to reuse the existing stone as much as possible.
First, we removed all of the old stone– some was severely damaged or disintegrated. Fortunately, our skilled crew was able to save 90% of the original material.
We then removed a few feet of earth from behind the original wall face so a Geosynthetically Confined Soil (GCS®) Wall could be built. This eliminated lateral earth pressure on the face by using compacted #57 stone reinforced with polypropylene geotextile sheets.
We needed more of the original facing stone, and so our project manager began to contact local quarries. He discovered some stone that matched our existing stone closely. Given that our crew reused most of the original stone, the added cost to the client for replacement material was minimal.
Our superintendent then carefully began to reface the GCS® wall with both the original and recently quarried stone. Like a jigsaw puzzle, the crew fit the pieces together to recreate the wall’s original design. The results were excellent.
Comments from the client and neighbors:
“It looks great from the drive-bys and the pictures… Your team did a great job and it was so quick!”
“Nice job! We have been trying to figure out the best way to make this wall repair for the last ten years or so. It looks like we found the perfect solution.”
The neighbors were so happy with the crew and their professionalism that they even provided breakfast most mornings! A local general contractor who followed the project’s progress has already reached out to have GeoStabilization bid on one of his projects. Innovation, hard work, and attention to detail – that’s the way GeoStabilization ensures client best value.
