Hi all,
To be clearer about the issues I am grappling with:-
Firstly, I have a criminal investigation and compliance background so I am informed by 10+ yrs of experience in this area as to how long processes can take when trying to get recalcitrant business owners or owners to provide reports or do something. It can take a long time. Not helpful in these cases where the goal is to preserve public safety - which require timely actions measured in days and weeks, not months.
1. I am pretty clear about process to get the wall rectified by private owner. I would just send it to Building Compliance and let them go through the process - orders etc. If it was getting to a point of imminent threat to public I would barricade off parts of the road to create no go zone. Height of Wall + minimum 1.2m - as per Safe Work NSW guildelines for bracing new masonry walls in the wind. The problem with sick retaining walls is who knows when it will decide to 'Total Collapse' especially if it has been looking sick for a long time.
My strategy to motivate building compliance to take action in a timely manner (and this is a key term for these things 'timely manner') is to pay for a report rather than wait months or never for the owners to do a report. I'll give that report to building compliance which provides evidence to support Emergency Orders etc.
2. What I was grappling with was the realisation that there could be many of these in the Council area - PRIVATE WALLS - not Council owned retaining walls. As each wall is managed by completely different entities ie a different entity per wall, there would be less certainty that these walls are being managed appropriately. And - if you start looking around when you walk down the street, the picture starts to paint itself for you.
So what to do?
*Do you take the line, well it is a massive issue beyond Council's resources to manage or attempt to manage. Rest on the principle that if you don't know about it (the wall and risk) then if it falls and injures people in the public space then the owners are liable. So you only engage with the walls that you become aware of via complaint whether internal complaint or external? This approach is practical and I suspect is the one adopted by most Councils. I would like to hear about this.But.... I believe this process raises moral, ethical and philosophical issues about the role of Council and Professional Engineers in maintaining public safety in public areas owned by Council.
*Do you attempt some form of risk mitigation - given that it is a massive task and likely beyond resource levels? But it is an obvious risk.
- I know of one solution - the former Warringah Council had 3 x staff that drove around each street looking for risk problems in the road reserve. That's all they did. The goal was to check every street in the Council at least once per year. Identifying sickly (bulging) private walls bulging into the road reserve would form part of this check.
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Matthew Holt
Construction & Maintenance Engineer
Northern Beaches Council (NSW)
t 02 9942 2843 m 0466 926 193
northernbeaches.nsw.gov.au
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Original Message:
Sent: 15 August 2018 22:02
From: Brian Bailey
Subject: Private Retaining Walls - risk to persons in road reserve
With regard to your responsibilities by the land owner on the downhill side of a retaining wall (either in a road reserve or private land) you should be aware of the common law of support. In this case it is the downhill owners responsibility is to ensure the integrity of the uphill structure. If the retaining wall is fully contained upon the uphill land including the footings then that is the uphill owners responsibility. However the downhill owner will always be responsible for ensuring full support in the case of excavating around footing etc.
Original Message:
Sent: 14 August 2018 20:43
From: James Lio
Subject: Private Retaining Walls - risk to persons in road reserve
Hi Matthew
Have you check the planning permit for the lot? It may include a clause that states "Landowner to maintain the retaining wall". You can use that clause to your advantage.
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Original Message------
Matthew
I have come across similar examples in our Shire where private retaining walls abutting public land pose a risk and or unsafe conditions.
Our process generally involves writing to the owner and asking them to repair the structure. When all else fails an order is issued by our Development Monitoring Team under item 21 of the Local Government Act Sect 124.
Edward Pereira