Broken Retaining Wall: Meadowbrook Terrace Streambank Restoration

The Streambank Restoration project promised to get rid of the retaining wall that had turned into a retaining dam.

The project will also consist of… removing the retaining wall.

City of Hendersonville – Engineering Department
Multi-Area Streambank Restoration

The pipe directed water to the other side of the retaining wall and washed away all the soil.

The neighbor’s basement floods when it rains.
The owner put in a pump to drain the water from the basement into the yard.
Instead of piping it to the brook, he piped it to a few feet from the brook.
The flow of water eroded a trench from the pipe to the brook, but then was stopped by the retaining wall.

The water created a trench and eroded the other side of the retaining wall.

When the first part of the retaining wall collapsed, it blocked the water, so it began to cut under more of the wall, which then collapsed.

Eventually the wall collapsed and dammed the brook.

The wall collapsed into the cane, blocking the stream.

Flood debris snagged into the collapsed wall, so the water swirled and undercut more of the wall.

The brook was diverted under what remained of the wall and the original area turned into a caney swamp.

Until finally most of the wall collapsed and blocked the original brook. The water flowed under and over the wall and most of the brook was on the other side of the retaining wall.