Wilder’s Grove Service Center

In 2010, the City of Raleigh began converting an old municipal landfill property in east Raleigh into a service center for their Public Works Department, and NV5 was selected for design and construction verification of retaining walls for the project.  The property borders the intersection of US Highway 64 Bypass and the Raleigh Beltline, and portions of the retaining walls are located in close proximity to property lines that limited wall construction types.  Therefore, our design included a combination of traditional MSE walls and large-block gravity walls.  The traditional MSE walls, which are as tall as about 25 feet, support roadways and parking lots, and our design had to coordinate with storm drainage structures since the parking lots generally slope towards the wall locations.  Additionally, we designed parapets with concrete coping at the tops of the walls for safety since the distance between the storm structures and curb was too small to allow installation of guardrails.  The large-block walls were designed using Stone Strong blocks and exceeded 20 feet in height.  These walls were designed as gravity walls using large mass‑extenders to limit the amount of excavation adjacent to the property lines.  The presence of slopes above portions of these walls added complexity to the design.  Several of these walls are visible from the on-ramp to the Beltline when traveling into Raleigh on US Highway 64 Bypass.