Broken Arrow City Council
Meeting of: 07-16-2019
Title:
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Presentation and possible consideration, discussion and approval regarding the Hillside Drive Wall Project
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Background:
During the historic storm events in May 2019, the existing Hillside Drive retaining wall was damaged. The damage was evidenced by the buckled pavement on Hillside, a damaged and buckled concrete curb, a significant void located behind the wall, and gaps as well as [ST1]bowing in the wall itself. All this evidence indicated that the wall was significantly damaged, posed a danger to passing pedestrian and vehicular traffic. After inspection by the City of Broken Arrow (the City) Retaining Wall Engineer (Alex Mills, P.E.), and discussions with City administration, the decision was made to close Hillside Drive to limit the potential for loss of life.
The Engineer of Record for the original wall and a surveyor were called in to detail the amount of wall movement, to evaluate of the stability of the wall, and make recommendations for repairs/replacement. The report that followed is attached. In short, the report indicated that a significant portion of the existing wall will need to be removed and rebuilt along with the addition of a drainage system to alleviate the evidentially significant amount of groundwater flow that is a root cause of the wall failure.
After receiving the report from the outside engineer, staff & administration from the Engineering & Construction (E&C) department met to discuss the findings & recommendations. The results of that meeting triggered an internal memo (also attached) that provided a brief summary of the results of the recommendation report, and of the internal discussions. In short, City staff does not feel comfortable recommending a replacement of the middle portion of the wall with the existing blocks, as the report suggested. The long history of issues with this wall, the limited right-of-way available in the area, and hi...
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