Retaining wall to be built

 

They say “when it rains, it pours” and Ironton officials are finding that pouring rain can have serious and perhaps even costly repercussions.

Ironton City Council has given two of the required three readings necessary for adoption of an ordinance that would allow E.L. Robinson Engineering to design a retaining wall to help correct a landslide at the city’s underground water reservoir on Nixon Hill.

“Last year when we had the heavy rains,a lot of people started calling and saying their water looked muddy,” Mayor Rich Blankenship explained. “We found that some land had slid down around the tank, which is underground, and seeped through the side of it.”

Blankenship said after the slip occurred, the area was excavated and earth moved off the tank. The area was stabilized, but the wall must be constructed to prevent this from happening again. Once the design work is completed, the retaining wall project must be placed for bid and a construction firm chosen.

Blankenship said he doesn’t know how much the design work and actual construction will cost.

“Anything we do is expensive but something has to be done,” Blankenship said.

Most of the money for the project is coming from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and from a state grant; the city must provide 12 and-a-half percent of the money for the project.