Omaha resident left with collapsed wall, city says contractor can’t be held responsible
OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Five inches of pouring rain one night in May didn’t worry Donna Hearn with her backyard shored up by a wood retaining wall installed in 2021.
“I looked out and saw these posts sticking straight up and called my friend and said, ‘Did something happen?’” Donna said. “And she said, ‘It’s all gone.’”
A 120-foot long retaining wall collapsed, with the anchors pulled out and pointing up. The wood wall is flat on the ground, covered by mud with the backyard fence on top.
“I’m definitely mad, because it’s only three years old,” Donna said.
Donna called several landscaping companies for bids, with Mike Tipton of Masterpiece Design giving an assessment of what he sees.
“I’ve seen walls fall over but I’ve never seen a wall of this magnitude [fall],” Tipton said. “It looks set up for failure from the beginning.”
An example is on one end of the collapsed wall that appears to have been nailed into adjacent railroad ties.
The wall installed wouldn’t give 6 News permission to use their recorded response to a question at their door on air, but they say that in their opinion, the cause of the collapse is simply Mother Nature. They assure Donna they built the wall correctly.
So, with the contractor and a competitor disagreeing over whether or not the retaining wall had been properly constructed, 6 News went to Omaha’s chief building inspector to break the tie, but he sent an email that says the city’s ordinance does not require a permit or an engineer’s design for a wall that’s lower than six feet.
This one is just under that mark.
With no inspection required, the original installers can’t be called out by name and can’t be accused of doing anything wrong, but a further investigation may help the homeowner in replacing the wall.
The original contractor has since removed the fence and utilities are marked. Donna just wants the wall replaced before another downpour dries up her patience.
City code requires a permit and design by a licensed engineer on retaining walls six feet and above. The original contractor has not returned messages sent by 6 News on whether a replacement wall rises to that level.
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