Residents in Claremont woke up to a scene of chaos this morning after a 1.5m retaining wall between two properties failed, leading to the collapse of a double car-port and driveway.
The retaining wall gave way over night, and the soil / sand behind the wall flowed onto one of the properties.This movement of material then caused undermining of the neighbouring driveway and car-port (at a higher level) which subsequently collapsed.
FESA State Emergency Service (SES) volunteers were called to the property in Walter Street, Claremont, at around 7.30am this morning. On arrival at the scene, SES crews found the car-port hanging dangerously off the house along one side, with no support under the opposite side.
Nick Elliott, Deputy Local Manager of Northshore SES said "We despatched a 6 man team to Walter Street following reports of a building collapse. On arrival crews found the car-port hovering dangerously in the air with little support. Two neighbouring properties had a level difference of about 1.5m, with a retaining wall between them. The structure and foundations of the retaining wall appear to have failed, giving rise to the situation faced by us today".
"Once on scene, we initially braced the car-port structure using steel props to prevent further collapse, and then concentrated on removing some of the extra load created by brick columns that were still tied to the structure. Once all dangerous remnants of retaining wall and columns had been removed, we then added further temporary support to the car-port, to await repair by the homeowners".
A structural engineer had been called by one of the residents, and was on-site to record the scene and plan a new permanent repair. Nick added "The quick actions of the homeowners in calling for assistance, and the lack of heavy rain since the overnight collapse, helped keep damage to a relatively localised area".
