As part of the wall project we had to do some preliminary cutting work. In addition to the palm trees mentioned in an earlier post, the oleander along the west side of the driveway had to be trimmed so we could access the north west pasture. We then created a ramp so machinery could more easily access the west pasture and wall area.
So where exactly did we cut into the land and how much did we excavate? Here’s shots showing the area before we began making the new trench but after the ties had been removed:
Sadly, it was at this point we discovered the company we contracted to do the wall engineering had dropped several balls. Even though we began this process almost a year earlier and they had possession of the soil studies and elevations, they still had not completed formal engineering drawings for us. After much consternation and teeth-pulling, we managed to get basic soil depth and our excavator driver could begin digging. And dig he did (pic 1).
After the surrounding trench area was cleaned up, it was time to work with our super-wonderful geotechnical engineers. We went with C2 Earth–totally unrelated to the construction/engineering firm designing the actual wall. C2 looked at a couple of scrapes we made to verify when the “good” earth started. This is what we needed to reach across the entire trench line; it corresponded closely with the initial bore findings. So our excavator driver got very, very busy:
