The city of Arnold has approved a permit for a construction company to repair a section of a nearly 50-foot retaining wall behind a small retail complex on Jeffco Boulevard that fell almost 10 months ago.
The complex, which is between McClain Drive and Ridgecrest Drive near the Arnold Post Office, is home to a Jimmy John’s sandwich shop, Cold Stone Creamery, Smoothie King and Verizon retail store.
City Administrator Bryan Richison said a permit for Contegra Construction Co. to repair the damaged section has been drafted.
Community Development Director David Bookless said as of April 16, the permit had not been picked up, and he did not know when the repair work would begin.
A section of the wall fell July 29, with large chunks of concrete settling behind two villa-style buildings in the 1200 block of Windcrest Circle – a neighborhood below where the wall collapsed.
The businesses in the retail complex had to close for eight days after the collapse. While those businesses have reopened, a parking lot behind the businesses and Jimmy John’s drive-thru lane have remain closed since part of the wall fell.
Richison said TNG LG Partners is listed as the complex’s property owner, and GeoStabilization International (GSI) is the architect firm that was hired to draft the plan to fix the wall.
He said the city could not release GSI’s design to repair the damage because the company said it is their intellectual property. A Freedom of Information request has been sent to Arnold for information about how the wall will be repaired, and Richison said GSI is working with the city to release information that will not reveal the company’s intellectual property.
After the portion of the wall fell, city officials said Arnold’s building commissioner directed the property owner to have a certified structural engineer assess the situation and propose remedies.
Richison said no single reason for the collapse was determined, but those involved in repairing the wall believe GSI’s design will prevent it from happening again.
Richison said Arnold hired Midwest Testing to review the repair design and to help assure city officials and staff that a similar problem will not occur again.
“The question I put to Midwest Testing was are there any causes of this failure that you can think of that would not be addressed by this proposed solution? The answer from Midwest Testing was no,” Richison said.
He said Midwest Testing has not yet billed the city for its review of the design to repair the wall.