Homes evacuated in Texas as ground shifts below (San Antonio)

AP on Yahoo ^ | 1/25/10 | AP

[Vor Lady]

This isn’t near your sister’s old place is it?

[DeltaZulu]

FYI there are caves in Bexar county. I used to play in one (a mid-sized cave). I lived off of 281 on the NE side of town. Lived in SA for about 7 years as a kid. My folks have lived there for the last 30 years.

[LongElegantLegs]

Same general area, I think.
As old and decrepit as our house is, at least the ground’s been adequately tested.

[Petronski]

Do you think we can expect the party or parties at fault to have sufficient liability coverage for this?

[Professional Engineer]

Amen.

[Joya]

Thx. Ping.

[Quix]

Thanks.

[El Gato]

take the image at that last line, and rotate it to the left (the symbol on the right of the compass) then rotate it back. For some reason you get an older image, showing the site prep, and clearly a lot of fill, especially on the curve where Treewill Glen becomes Valley Wells (or vice versa). I believe that is the point where the "shifting" occurred.

Try this link It's a little hinky and wants to shift between that older image and a newer one as you scroll the image a little, or zoom it.

[thecodont]

Fiesta Texas, for example, is built inside an old gravel pit.

This sounds like the opening for a good story.

[El Gato]

Do you think we can expect the party or parties at fault to have sufficient liability coverage for this?

Possibly, since there apparently were no injuries. But since they did not get the required permit for that retaining wall, they haven't got a chance of fighting paying for the damages. There will be a bunch of houses that will be "totaled", and I doubt a judge would insist on the owners accepting rebuilding on the same site.

OTOH, I wouldn't shed too many tears for Pulte/Centex, from what I've seen of their work, in San Antonio and elsewhere.

[El Gato]

Fiesta Texas, for example, is built inside an old gravel pit.

Actually a limestone quarry. So is "The Quarry" shopping center off 281, and Trinity University also on 281. Trinity is built on several levels of the old quarry. It's a long climb from the parking lot/athletic field level, to the Dorm level and up to the classroom buildings level. My daughter went to a preview day there, before settling on another school, the one where my wife is now a department chair. Good choice, IMO, but Trinity is still a pretty good school.

[El Gato]

I’m not sure if that is Bexar County or not,

It's just on the wrong side of Cibolo creek to be Bexar county, but it's still closer to loop 1604 than the north end of Camp Bullis is. It also has a San Antonio address.

[kitkat]

***This sounds like the opening for a good story.***

Jom Toad surveyed the surrounding territory, and knew he had found his new home. It would be difficult to keep his tent anchored in the soil, but when the rains came, the drainage would be superb.

[cpdiii]

Assuming the specific gravity of the fill is 2.0 you could easily have 25 psi at the bottom of the retaining wall pushing out. That would mean a force of over 3000 lbs on each square foot.

I knew I should have used my calculater. The real force would be about 17 psi or 2440 lbs of pressure per square foot.