PARAMUS A seven-year battle between a retired police officer and the borough over whether he improperly built a stone wall outside his home has come to a seeming conclusion with a judge ruling that the wall must come down.

Former police Sgt. John Ward said he's still in shock that Superior Court Judge Lisa Perez Friscia recently decided that the wall surrounding his property at the corner of Midland and Hickory avenues must be dismantled because it encroaches on the public right of way.

"I told my attorney I can't go on with this even though there are grounds for appeal," Ward said. "I don't have the money."

He's considering two options: moving the wall, which would prove costly at about $10,000; or asking the borough engineer for permission to dismantle the wall and regrade the slope to its original look.

Anthony Suarez, the attorney representing the borough, did not return phone calls seeking comment Monday.

Ward erected the wall more than 25 years ago to replace railroad ties that periodically had to be removed because of rot, he said. He said he wasn't aware he ever needed a permit to install the wall, which he considered decorative. He also never had to seek a permit when replacing the railroad ties, he said.

But in 2007, the same year after he filed a suit alleging political cronyism in the police department, the town zoning officer at the time, Lisa Meserole, acting on an anonymous tip, told him he would have to seek zoning board approval before he could continue building a deck in his side yard, he said.

The board then investigated Ward's history of improvements to his property and said he needed permits for a range of improvements he had undertaken including a fence, a pergola and the retaining walls.

Zoning members heard Ward's application and denied the variances. He sued the borough and zoning officials to force acceptance of the structures, claiming the town had sought the violations in retribution for his whistle-blower lawsuit, which was settled in 2010.

A Superior Court judge ordered Ward to resubmit his proposal and seek approvals for the work. He did so and most of the improvements were approved.

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Paramus ex-cop loses battle over retaining wall

Repairs to start on storm battered sea defences at Whitecliff

5:00am Monday 10th March 2014 in News By Jim Durkin

WORK to maintain sea defences at Pooles Whitecliff Recreation Ground will be carried out following damage to the sea wall exacerbated by the recent storms.

Large machinery will be operating at the popular green space from today.

Borough of Poole is carrying out general maintenance to the retaining rock wall, from Whitecliff to the sluice gate channel to Poole Park Lake.

Council officials say access along the pathway will be restricted at times, and have asked dog owners to keep their pets away from the work area.

It is expected work on the retaining wall, which was first constructed in the early 1970s when the park was built from reclaimed land, will take one week to complete.

Cllr Xena Dion, cabinet portfolio holder for a prosperous and sustainable Poole, said: It is vital we preserve the coastline as well as ensuring the stability of our existing sea defences to safeguard the borough.

The recent storms we have experienced over the past two months show just how important our flood defences are to the town.

It is imperative that we manage these defences appropriately and continue to invest in them in the future.

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Repairs to start on storm battered sea defences at Whitecliff

Wharf House Retaining Wall Construction-Revised
Typical Staggered Concrete Retaining Wall Construction, The Formwork by specialist.

By: Majid Ahari

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Wharf House Retaining Wall Construction-Revised - Video

SureWall Retaining Wall Systems
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Geotechnical-Factor of Safety Against Sliding on Retaining Wall
A great geotechnical question that could be found on the civil PE exam. A retaining wall is setup and you are to find the factor of safety against sliding. C...

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Geotechnical-Factor of Safety Against Sliding on Retaining Wall - Video

Traveling from South of Market, past Moscone Convention Center and to the far end of Union Square on Saturday morning was an other-worldly experience: no cars, no stores, no tall buildings, no crowded sidewalks, no panhandlers.

Everything was gray. And noisy - a loud constant buzz bordering on a roar mixed with the incessant metallic hammering sound interspersed with occasional beeps. Even the weather was odd. It was warm and humid, yet dry. Still, the pavement underfoot was covered in a sticky layer of mud.

This trip, seemingly out of a science fiction novel, was a tour of the under-construction northbound bore of the Central Subway - the Municipal Transportation Agency's $1.6 billion transit link between the Caltrain station and Chinatown.

The line will stretch 1.7 miles, with a twin-bore tunnel going underground where Interstate 80 crosses Fourth Street. An above-ground station will be built at Fourth and Brannan streets with subterranean stations near Moscone Center at Fourth and Folsom streets, at Union Square and in Chinatown at Stockton and Washington streets, where the tracks will end.

But the tunnel will extend to Powell Street and Columbus Avenue, the site of the old Pagoda Palace Theater in North Beach, where the two tunnel-boring machines will be plucked from the ground and an extension might someday be built.

For now, the two machines - each longer than a football field and weighing 750 tons - are steadily and surreptitiously gnawing 20-foot wide tunnels beneath one of the most-congested parts of the city. Tunneling crews work five days a week, 12 hours a day, with maintenance work taking place when they're not digging.

Mom Chung, the machine named for the nation's first American-born female Chinese physician, got a head start in July and is now at Stockton and Clay streets in Chinatown. Big Alma, dedicated to socialite and philanthropist Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, started work in November and has made it past Union Square. She's now sitting beneath the Nike store.

Mike Sinon, safety manager for contractor Barnard Impreglio Healy, said it's a tradition as well as a safety precaution to name the tunneling machines - usually after women.

"It's bad juju to not name tunnel-boring machines," he said. "It's done all over the world."

So far, it seems to be working. John Funghi, the MTA's Central Subway project manager, said the work has been imperceptible on the surface, even when passing beneath some of the city's busiest areas, such as Fourth and Market streets, where the boring machines had to dig beneath Old Navy and Forever 21.

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Machines quietly tunneling in Muni's Central Subway project

by KHOU.com staff

khou.com

Posted on March 8, 2014 at 1:35 PM

Updated yesterday at 1:35 PM

HOUSTON A man is in serious condition after he hit the retaining wall on the freeway, flipped and was thrown from his car early Saturday in east Houston, according to DPS.

According to the State Troopers, the accident happened around midnight on the East Freeway and the East Sam Houston Parkway. The driver was heading west on the freeway when he lost control of the vehicle and struck the inside retaining wall, causing the car to roll several times.

He was transported to Ben Taub Hospital in serious but stable condition, DPS said.

This caused a major headache for driversthe freeway was shut down for about two hours.

State police say they are checking to see if alcohol was involved.

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DPS: Man hospitalized after rollover accident on East Freeway

Retaining Wall Montage
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Winter 2013 - Retaining Wall Back-filled with Dirt

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Winter 2013 - Retaining Wall Back-filled with Dirt - Video

1970s Zambia, Railway Construction, Building Huge Retaining Wall, Chinese and African Workers
From the Kinolibrary archive film collections. To order the clip clean and high res or to find out more visit http://www.kinolibrary.com. Clip ref AB69 1970s...

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1970s Zambia, Railway Construction, Building Huge Retaining Wall, Chinese and African Workers - Video