The railroad-tie wall beside Ryan Turcotte’s outbuilding in Newland, North Carolina, held back roughly 150 feet of hillside. The timbers had deteriorated, and water pressure behind the wall contributed to its failure. Samaritan’s Purse approved the replacement, and our crew began hauling out the old ties in early June 2026.
Once the ties were out, we could reshape about 80 feet of the bank into a gradual slope. We compacted the fill in lifts, seeded it with creeping red fescue and laid aspen wood-fiber mats to protect the soil while the grass took root.
Along the remaining 70 feet, we built a retaining wall with six-foot interlocking concrete blocks. We set the blocks on a compacted clean-stone base and installed clean stone and a perforated drain behind them to give water a path out. On June 25, we confirmed to Samaritan’s Purse that the wall was complete and the drainage issues had been corrected.
FAQ’S
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