A towering retaining wall built by Centex Homes split apart in a residential neighborhood, threatening dozens of homes.
Created by John_Tedesco on Mar 23, 2010
Last updated: 12/14/11 at 10:42 AM
Tags: Centex Homes Sink Holes San Antonio Texas Home Builders Sinking Neighborhood Rivermist
This time, it's in the Fairhaven neighborhood just northeast of San Antonio in Schertz.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/article/Pulte-faces-new-wall-cracks-in-Schertz-2401188.php
The most serious problems at the Heights of Crownridge were found at "Retaining Wall 12" on the southeast corner of the subdivision.
Engineer Tim Theis wrote that the wall was not built according to engineering plans, and a "significant vertical crack" was found. The wall had to be shortened for safety reasons.
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/229645-letter1.html
Inspections continue at the Heights of Crownridge and more walls are certified as safe. Drainage problems were found at two walls but these issues did not appear to be serious.
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/229647-letter3.html
Inspections continue at the Heights of Crownridge and more walls are certified as safe.
http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/229646-letter2.html
A bigger, better wall will cost $10 million.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Rivermist-neighborhoods-mark-one-year-since-wall-972655.php
After the wall collapse at Rivermist, city officials told all developers in San Antonio to go through a permitting process for retaining walls over four feet tall and built within the last three years.
Officials say the neighborhood with the biggest problem has been the Heights of Crownridge, an upscale subdivision in the works on the city's Northwest Side. Bought at a foreclosure auction in June 2009, the subdivision has 14 retaining walls, and not all have passed inspection.
The city initially barred building permits on all lots in this subdivision until concerns about the retaining walls were addressed.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=205962862035447547166.0004a98de6761a9b5b008&msa=0&ll=29.618647,-98.633687&spn=0.007685,0.011973
"A week after skipping a meeting with city officials and residents of the Rivermist neighborhoods, a Centex Homes official apologized to residents Tuesday and said Centex would meet with them on a “case by case” basis about buying back their homes."
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/Centex_apologizes_for_skipping_Rivermist_meeting.html
Centex Homes is hoping the third time's the charm. This week it produced a preliminary design concept for a new retaining wall to replace one that collapsed in January in a Northwest Side neighborhood — which in 2007 replaced one that was not “performing to expectations.”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Plans-for-new-Rivermist-wall-submitted-1724827.php
From a mostly quiet tract of land surrounded by the hubbub of urban life, Ernest Ruiz has waged a nearly three-year fight against the city of San Antonio over the failure of a retaining wall.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/S-A-has-its-own-wall-troubles-1724879.php
Centex Homes will offer to buy back 27 homes in a Northwest Side neighborhood and plans to spend $4 million to $5 million to rebuild a massive retaining wall that collapsed Jan. 24.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Buyback-offers-for-27-homes-at-Rivermist-1724791.php
Dozens of homeowners in a Northwest Side neighborhood where the ground shifted and a retaining wall collapsed have asked Centex Homes and its parent company Pulte Homes to buy back their homes.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/Homeowners_ask_for_buybacks.html
Residents say new cracks have opened in retaining walls in a Northwest Side neighborhood where the collapse of one wall led to the evacuation of more than two dozen homes.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/New-cracks-found-in-Rivermist-walls-1724743.php
The “slope failure” that last month forced 91 owners to evacuate from their homes in one of Centex’s subdivisions in San Antonio has led that city to take a much closer look at the structural integrity of retaining walls in all of its residential communities, as well as a permitting process that, depending on who you talk to, until recently has been either ambiguous, mostly ignored, or remarkably lax in its enforcement.
http://www.builderonline.com/construction-safety/san-antonio-takes-a-harder-line-with-builders-after-last-months-hillside-collapse.aspx
A fast, patchwork repair of the collapsed retaining wall at a Northwest Side neighborhood won’t be enough for city officials.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Retaining-wall-won-t-see-a-quick-fix-1724694.php
The retaining wall that collapsed last week and jeopardized a neighborhood built by Centex Homes was built with less mortar than what engineering plans called for, according to city officials who inspected the wall Friday.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/City-Fallen-wall-wasn-t-built-as-planned-1724654.php
Despite the growing popularity of towering retaining walls like the one that buckled last week, San Antonio officials have paid scant attention to the structures in residential subdivisions and can’t vouch for their safety.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/No_one_is_watching_the_walls.html
Thursday’s rain failed to trigger any additional ground shifting at a Northwest Side subdivision, but authorities planned to continue to monitor overnight a collapsed retaining wall that threatened to further damage several homes.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Rivermist-owners-have-new-fear-Rain-1719509.php
http://www2.mysanantonio.com/PDFs/Centex_Homes_Post_Construction_Retaining_Wall_Drawings.pdf
The developer of a San Antonio, Texas neighborhood where a landslide threatens about a dozen homes concedes that it lacked a permit for a towering retaining wall that began crumbling several days ago.
The day after a towering retaining wall collapsed in a Northwest Side neighborhood, officials with Centex Homes told anxious residents that the San Antonio Fire Department was leaving the neighborhood because the danger had ended.
But at the same time, Centex was hiring off-duty firefighters to monitor the scene because of the “high risk nature of the work,” according to a city official.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Rivermist-residents-wrongly-told-threat-was-over-1724559.php
Centex, the Texas-based developer that Pulte Homes acquired last year, did not have a permit for “an improperly constructed retaining wall” that collapsed Sunday, causing damage to at least three homes and forcing the evacuation of dozens of families, according to city officials.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/No_permit_for_failed_wall.html
http://www2.mysanantonio.com/PDFs/WallCOSAResponseEmailThread.pdf
Authorities evacuated about 80 homes in a Northwest Side neighborhood Sunday when ground caved in behind several houses, pushing earth down a 30-foot hill and into two retaining walls that cracked and threatened residences below.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/Residents-forced-out-of-homes-by-shifting-land-1719501.php
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