I haven't been able to find any reference to the event, but some years ago, I recall that a roadside wall collapsed in The Borough of The Bronx in New York City along that borough's Grand Concourse Parkway. As I also remember, people were killed. I have been noticing another wall, this one located in Westchester County along the east side of the Sprain Brook Parkway, which I think is in the same jeopardy.
This photograph was recently taken by my wife in our moving car as we passed by that wall's location near the 8.3 mile roadside marker.
We have been traveling past this wall since 1979. It is my distinct memory that the depicted surface of this wall was perfectly vertical those thirty-some-odd years ago, but today, that is no longer so. I believe that the top edge of this wall has moved over toward the roadway and that the wall's surface is no longer vertical. I believe that its once vertical surface has shifted toward the roadway.
In my view, if the process that I believe is responsible for a suspected structural shift is allowed to continue, it will eventually cause the wall to collapse with catastrophic consequences as in the Grand Concourse event. That event might not occur for years yet to come, but come, I believe it will.
I have visited the following website,
https://www.dot.ny.gov/main/feedback-form?p_url=https://www.dot.ny.gov/divisions/engineering/structures/bridge-program,
where I filed a report to call my concern to the attention of the New York State Department of Transportation (D.O.T.).
In reply to my on-line filling in and submittal of the above from, I received the following automated e-mail.
-----Original Message-----
From: no-reply@dot.state.ny.us [mailto:no-reply@dot.state.ny.us]
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2012 5:31 PM
To: ambertec@ieee.org
Subject: NYSDOT COMMENT - Highways/Roads
Thank you for your inquiry with the New York State Department of Transportation. Please know your correspondence will be forwarded to the proper program area for response. Please note that many questions can be answered by navigating our website at: www.dot.ny.gov . Again, thank you for your inquiry.
So far, there's been no response from the D.O.T. and I wonder if there ever will be before someone has needlessly died.
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