In 2012, the City of Owensboro, Kentucky secured federal funding for long-needed improvements to a major drainage channel within the city limits known as Persimmon Ditch. The design goals for the channel improvements included correcting the hydraulics of the channel to limit flooding concerns and to protect a sanitary sewer line from erosion that crossed under the stream channel at shallow depth. The planned work was further complicated by soft foundation soils and elevated seismic design requirements.
Working in conjunction with the city’s consulting engineers, JC Hines and Associates prepared a design for the retaining walls utilizing wet-cast, precast modular block units designed as self-supporting gravity structures without soil reinforcement. Wall heights range between 3 feet and 7.5 feet.