City develops solution for Shoal Creek landslide
Drone footage shows just how serious the landslide along Shoal Creek from earlier this month, truly was. Pieces of the earth and debris lay along the trail between 24th and 29th Streets.
“It's in everybody's best interest to not get close to that, do not stand on the bottom of that,” said Mike Kelly, managing engineer with the City of Austin Watershed Protection Department.
Read Shoal Creek slope remains unstable city works to prevent future foundation shift
A big rain event caused the limestone keeping the soil together to break, and the clay underneath, to slide down the hillside. Now the city has come up with a solution.
“We're going to be using piles in the forms of piers that we will drive down into the Earth and that will be going to go down into the limestone below the clay. We're going to drive tensioned anchors into the earth through the clay down into that limestone. That way we have two forms of stability,” said Kelly.
The city says they also will put in soil nails, which use tension to hold the soil together. The event is troubling for the four affected homeowners on the hillside. One of the property owners has even hired a private engineer.
Read Shoal Creek slope collapse reveals deeper fractures
“The city has our own team of experts advising us, the property owner has done the same thing and we're comparing notes each step of the way,” said Kelly.
“There was a repair that repair didn't hold twenty years later and that's why we got this occurrence,” said Ted Siff with the Shoal Creek Conservancy.
Read City crews assessing damage after Shoal Creek landslide
This was coming, it's nature. It happened before back in 1998. Siff hopes there can be a better and lasting solution for this problem. “Shoal Creek Conservancy has raised money, private funds, and federal grant funds to do a long term water management plan that would allow an assessment of all these issues,” said Siff.
Read Shoal Creek Hike and Bike Trail damaged by 'slope failure'
The city says once they begin working, the whole repair process could take ten to twelve weeks.