A University professor has given his opinion after a huge brick wall collapsed in Nottingham.

Emergency services evacuated five families from four separate properties in Spalding Road and Windmill Lane, Sneinton, on February 3 after a 70-foot high wall fell down.

Nottinghamshire Police said no-one was injured but some homes were left severely damaged.

David Large, a University of Nottingham professor in the Faculty of Engineering, said he believe it was likely to be down to recent weather conditions.

He said: "I looked at the pictures and thought the wall has failed, it has probably been gradually heading in that direction and just tipped over. Of this scale, it is quite uncommon.

"There's been a lot of rain recently, the soils have been quite wet and that would increase the force in the wall.

"If the wall was heading towards a point where it might collapse, it could just tip over. Over time a wall will gradually start to bulge or tilt. It will be subtle and at some point, it will reach a critical stage.

"It looked like the wall collapsed and what was behind it followed. The rockface doesn't seem to have moved that much, it seemed to be the soil between the rocks and the wall that's moved.

"Maybe the wall was a bit old and heading in that direction. It was obviously past its best. I would imagine that extra bit of rain recently has caused this particular section of wall to fall."

He added: "It is an absolutely terrible thing to happen, the people in those houses must've had the fright of their lives.

"Thankfully nobody was outside and close to the wall when it fell that could've been quite awful."

A City Council spokesperson said: We are doing all we can to provide help and support for residents affected by the collapse of a large wall in the early hours of Wednesday morning. This was an awful incident where everyone is relieved there have been no injuries, but which has left households already coping with lockdown with significant issues to deal with.

Boundary and retaining walls are generally the responsibility of property owners and we believe this to be the case here, but in situations like this, councils have the powers to carry out work which ensures peoples safety, with the ability to recover costs.

We are now focused on assessing the condition of the affected gardens and properties and making the area safe before turning our attention to the clear-up work.

Read the original here:
Expert's opinion on how 70ft wall collapsed in the middle of the night - Nottinghamshire Live

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February 5, 2021 at 4:50 pm by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Retaining Wall