A packed commuter train slammed into a retaining wall at a railway terminus in Buenos Aires during rush hour Wednesday, leaving at least 49 dead, 550 injured, and dozens trapped in the wreckage.

"The train was full and the impact was tremendous," a passenger identified only as Ezequiel told local television, adding that medics at the scene appeared overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster.

Witnesses said passengers were hurled on top of each other and knocked to the floor "in the blink of an eye," some losing consciousness and others seriously injured.

"Unfortunately, we must report that there are 49 dead in the accident," including a child, police spokesman Nestor Rodriguez told a news conference.

Civil defense officials said at least 550 people were injured in the crash, which witnesses said occurred after the train's brakes failed as it was arriving at a station on the western outskirts of Buenos Aires.

The toll surpassed the city's last major rail disaster just five months ago when two trains and bus collided during rush hour, killing 11 people and injuring more than 200.

A dozen ambulances were dispatched to the scene, and officials said many passengers had suffered multiple fractures and abrasions.

At least 30 people were trapped in the twisted wreckage of the first and second cars of the train, Alberto Crescenti, the head of the city's emergency services office, said.

Transportation Secretary Juan Pablo Schiavi said the train entered the station at a speed of 20 kilometers (12 miles) an hour, and failed to stop, crashing into a retaining wall at the end of the track.

"It was a very serious accident," he said at a news conference. "Cars piled up on top of each other and one them went six meters (yards) inside another car."

"People suffered contusions, but there are much more complex cases involving traumas of the thorax. There are people trapped alive in the cars."

Firefighters and rescue workers had to break through skylights in the train's roofs to open a path to those trapped inside.

"I felt the explosion of the crash. It was very loud. The train did not brake, I saw people hurt in their necks, arms, legs," said Pedro Fuentes, a passenger.

Another passenger, who identified herself as Myriam, said she was with her two children, ages six and four.

"In a blink of an eye we were on the floor. I don't know how we got out. The door crashed in one me, and I covered the girl."

The train's driver was injured but rescue workers pried him loose from the wreckage of his cabin. Local television showed images of him and several people being carried away on stretchers.

An investigation into the crash has been opened, but an employee with the rail line's maintenance department, Monica Slotauer, said "the brakes failed and this is the result of a lack of investment."

The Sarmiento rail line, which links the center of Buenos Aires to a densely populated suburb 70 kilometers (44 miles) to the west of the city, uses rolling stock acquired in the 1960s.

The accident occurred just five months after the Argentine capital was shocked by another rush hour transit disaster, that one involving a collision between two trains and a bus.

That accident in September killed 11 people including the bus driver and injured more 200.

The region's transit system has been plagued with serious accidents in recent years.

In March 2008, 18 people were killed and 47 injured when a bus was hit by a train in Dolores, 212 kilometers (132 miles) south of Buenos Aires.

Argentina's deadliest train tragedy was in 1970, an accident that killed 200 people in northern Buenos Aires.

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49 dead, hundreds injured in Buenos Aires train crash

Residents of Grand Haven’s Poplar Ridge area near Highland Park will soon be seeing improvements to aging retaining walls.

City Council on Monday unanimously approved a $60,956 contract with Katerberg-VerHage Inc. to perform the work.

The city will cover one-third of the cost and residents residing near the walls paying the remaining two-thirds, pending the approval of a special assessment district.

Councilman Mike Fritz said he was excited to see the city finally giving the go-ahead for the retaining wall project.

“It’s been over eight years that we’ve been discussing this,” he said.

According to Grand Haven Project Manager Julie Beaton, the people in charge of the project came highly recommended by other communities and people who utilized their services.

“I had extremely positive responses for them,” she said, adding that she spoke with the contractor at length about the project and what it would entail.

“Probably the most significant thing is they’re going to attack it differently than we had proposed,” Beaton said.

She said the city had proposed driving in sheet pile to support the wall, then repair it before removing the sheet pile wall when they were done.

A special public hearing is planned for March 5 at 7:30 p.m. to discuss the special assessment district created by the city to help pay for the new walls.

To read more of this story, see today’s print or e-edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.

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City approves contractor for Highland Park retaining wall replacement

by STEVE STOLER

WFAA

Posted on February 20, 2012 at 10:16 PM

Updated Monday, Feb 20 at 10:43 PM

CARROLLTON — Three Carrollton families who spent the last two years fearing their homes would end up in a creek say they've now run out of options.

So they're going to court, attempting to force the city to repair a sinking retaining wall that's devastating their backyards and threatening their homes.

Every time it rains, their backyards sink a little lower.

"It's just getting worse," said Laura Brewer, one of the homeowners.

They've watched their backyards on Barclay Drive slip away for the last two years. Now they're running out of time and patience.

"We tried everything else we could think of," Brewer said.

Brewer and her husband joined two other families and filed a lawsuit against the city. They're claiming Carrollton set a precedent when they made repairs to the same wall down the street and picked up the tab.

"[The city's] lawyer says it would be against the law for them to help us, because it's private property," Brewer said. "But we believe they are responsible, because they fixed the same wall in 1996."

The lawsuit also accuses the city of negligence during 2005 construction to replace a sewer line on Dudley Branch Creek.

The homeowners claim when crews moved dirt, they covered small drainage holes in the wall. They believe over time, the soil became even more saturated, placing additional stress on the wall and causing it to fail.

"I'm very scared our house is going to slide down," said Petra Chudejova. "And I'm afraid my children will get hurt."

Carrollton's engineering manager has maintained all along that the wall is on private property, and it is therefore the homeowners' responsibility to make repairs.

On Monday, city leaders would not discuss the pending lawsuit.

The homeowners say the repairs could cost up to $75,000 at each of their homes.

E-mail sstoler@wfaa.com

Read more from the original source:
Carrollton homeowners sue city over retaining wall damage

Contractors for the Texas Department of Transportation have begun work on a project that department spokesman Marc Shepherd said had prompted a lot of telephone calls.

Just about where the U.S. 69 North exits is on eastbound Interstate 10, there's a large crack in the pavement.

Shepherd said the crack formed after the retaining wall beneath the interstate shifted. This, in turn, caused the soil supporting that section of roadway to shift as well.

"It left a void underneath the pavement, causing it to drop down 2 to 3 inches," he said.

In December, the department accepted bids on the $791,166.90 project that involves repairing the retaining wall, leveling the road and the repairing the crack. The work requires a couple of stages and crews now are working on the first stage, Shepherd said.

For the next month, workers from Gibson and Associates will be burying and attaching support beams to the wall that runs parallel to frontage road, near where it intersects with Harrison Avenue. These beams will prevent the wall from slipping any further.

Once the wall is stabilized, the work will move onto the road itself.

The department will begin shutting down U.S. 69 North at night, drilling into the pavement and injecting an expanding polymer into the dirt beneath the roadway. The polymer will expand and level the depressed concrete, allowing crews to permanently repair the crack. Shepherd said this work will be done at night to minimize the interference with traffic and increase safety for the workers.

AMorale@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/Bmt_Amos

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I-10 at U.S. 69 getting road fix

Grand Haven City Council will be looking at upgrades to retaining walls on Poplar Ridge during its meeting on Monday night.

It will be held at City Hall, 519 Washington Ave., beginning at 7:30 p.m.

City Council will consider accepting the low bid and approving a contractor service agreement with Katerberg-VerHage Inc. of Grand Rapids for $60,956 for replacement of the retaining walls on either side of Poplar Ridge.

Funding for the project is coming from a special assessment, wherein the nearby property owners will be responsible for paying for two-thirds of the cost of the project.

The work will have to be completed by or before May 23, or started after Sept. 5. Reasons behind this are due to constraints related to staging areas, execution and access to the construction site.

Once the contract is awarded by City Council, the contractor will submit a joint permit application to the state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to perform the work

in the critical dune area. When this permit is received, it will determine when the project can begin.

A separate project, scheduled to begin in the spring, involves extending sanitary sewer into the area of the retaining wall project. The two contractors will be directed to work together on schedules, access and minimizing conflicts that may adversely impact either project.

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Poplar retaining wall on Monday’s council agenda

MT. GRETNA - Borough Council on Monday night approved spending up to $15,000 to replace a failed retaining wall on Lancaster Avenue.

One quote has been obtained for $4,800 for materials and $9,800 for the required excavation, according to Bill Care, public works director.

The law requires two more quotes to be obtained before the project may begin, but council members said they are hopeful the project can get under way before the next meeting.

The borough received a $10,000 grant from the county to assist in funding the project. The remainder of the funds will be taken from the liquid fuels fund.

In other business:

As requested by council, Care reported on the cost of a small chipper that could be used to chip brush. The borough currently picks up brush and hauls it to be burned.

Council members said they believe they should move away from open burning, so last month they asked Care to research the cost of a small chipper. Care said it would cost about $8,800 to buy a small chipper similar to one demonstrated recently in the borough.

Council members held off on a decision, asking Care to put together a list of upcoming projects and their costs and have the list ready to study at next month's meeting.

Council members adopted a hazard mitigation resolution plan. Care noted the adoption of the plan would allow the borough to be eligible for grant funds should a disaster occur. Barney Myer and Ed Kosoff were appointed to serve as members of the Mt. Gretna Authority board. In the absence of a representative of the Cornwall Police Department, council President Charles "Chuck" Allwein presented the January police report. Officers spent 44.5 hours and drove 121 miles on borough business during the month, he said.

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Gretna to replace ailing wall

Story Created: Feb 15, 2012 at 5:11 PM EST

Story Updated: Feb 15, 2012 at 5:51 PM EST

UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - There is progress for people living in an area that was hit not once, but twice by heavy rain last summer.

Homeowners on Brookline Drive in South Utica are finding comfort in construction crews working along the Sauquoit Creek. Last summer, the waters came up so fast from Tropical Storm Irene that the city had to evacuate dozens of residents in that neighborhood.

The storm was so fierce that even the retaining wall started to break away.

"This new wall is going to protect the whole stream bank and protect this road from eroding," said Todd Kogut, a Construction Inspector said Wednesday. "The retaining wall won't prevent the flooding, but the new retaining wall will stabilize the banks so that we wont lose the road. As you can see, the retaining wall is just a few feet from the road."

Construction on Brookline Drive is expected to be complete by next week, roughly six months since Tropical Storm Irene hit the Mohawk Valley back in August.

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Construction expected to be complete next week in retaining wall following Summer floods

EVERETT -- Children from Faith Lutheran Church helped build a retaining wall for a Guatemalan school in danger of sliding down a steep hillside in a remote village.

Although the children of the church didn't travel to the Central American country, their efforts made a real difference there.

Each year the children raise money to donate to organizations. Last year Marco Tulio Maldonado, the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation's director in Guatemala, traveled to Everett and shared some of the needs of village schools with the children of Faith Lutheran Church.

Maldonado makes an annual trip to Everett, which is headquarters of the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation.

The kids met with their leaders, Nancy Bolling and Janie May, to determine which cause to support. This year the Children of Faith raised money to help save the Guatemalan school. Pete Kinch, a former mayor of Everett, is a member of the church and also executive director of the Hands for Peacemaking Foundation. The nonprofit has staff that has worked near the small village of San Pedro Miador for more than 25 years.

The Everett children were so taken by stories about the children of San Pedro Miador that they chose to give their money to help the village, Kinch said.

During Maldonado's visit to Everett this year they presented him a check for $1,349.90 for the school.

The congregation donated generously because the children were enthusiastic about the project.

The school in San Pedro Miador was built on a steep slope. Heavy rain eroded the foundation. Hands for Peacemaking Foundation volunteers from Everett and villagers helped build a retaining wall that helped keep the building from toppling. The project was completed about a month ago.

"The people live 14 hours from the nearest city. Fresh water is a problem for the villagers. Their earnings average from $1.50 to $3.50 (a day) by picking sugar cane or coffee crop," Kinch said. "When the kids learned they could literally save the school, they worked harder."

The donation was one of the largest collected by children at the Everett church. In the past they've raised money to help the Everett Animal Shelter. This year the children are donating their money to the Little Red School House, which helps developmentally disabled children.

Church leaders said the children are proud to see their efforts help mobilize a village to save the school.

Winonna Saari: 425-339-3437; wsaari@heraldnet.com.

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Children from Everett church help raise money to save school in Guatemala

30-03-2010 10:08 This video shows Phoenix Home Services, a contractor for Northern Virginia and Washington DC, explaining how drainage on a retaining wall is done. To see more projects that Phoenix has done, visit http://www.virginiadrainage.com

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Retaining Wall Drainage Explained - Video

14-11-2010 23:29 http://www.landscapingnetwork.com A failing wood retaining wall is replaced by an attractive 3-foot-tall reinforced concrete block wall with a stucco finish. A strip of decorative gravel behind the wall facilitates drainage.

Originally posted here:
Retaining Wall Design -- Smooth Stucco - Video