Hardscape Retaining Walls Tie Development Together

THE CHALLENGE

The Meadows at Searcy Creek is a Kansas City community development that includes a Mormon temple, a meeting hall, housing, and an impressive landscape. As ground broke for the project in 2009, retaining walls were required to support structures on the hilly lot-plus screen the development from traffic noise.

Originally, the owner of this project wanted to use natural stone to create several large retaining walls. But that was before the developer heard about Rosetta.

THE SOLUTION

When the owner found out that Midwest Block had just started producing Rosetta products, they liked what they saw. "They thought Rosetta looked good enough to be natural stone and said they would use it if we could beat their bid for natural stone. After labor and everything, Rosetta came in under the amount for natural stone," explained Ray Briggs who is in landscaping sales at Midwest.

"The main reason they went with Rosetta is that Rosetta looked like natural rock, but it was more durable. We've seen natural stone walls around town that degrade really quickly, and we needed a block that would last," explained Justin Milburn of Continental Engineering.

THE DESIGN

The development includes Rosetta walls in several different applications because "we wanted to keep a similar look throughout the project," Milburn said.

Rosetta is a complete line of hardscape products modeled after world-class natural stone. With consistent dimensions that replicate the look and feel of nature, Rosetta is a perfect choice for projects that require the aesthetics of natural stone, but the durability of an engineered block. Rosetta product lines used on this project included the large-scale Outcropping Collection, and the smaller handset Belvedere Collection. Both Outcropping and Belvedere can be used to build retaining and freestanding walls.

A total of four separate Rosetta walls can be found throughout the development, but one of the most eye-catching portions is an overlook where pedestrians can enjoy the landscape, which includes several ponds as a focal point.

To create the overlook, engineers designed a 9-foot (2.7-meter) tall Rosetta Outcropping retaining wall topped with a 3-foot (0.9-meter) tall Belvedere freestanding wall to act as a handrail.

"There are park benches on top of the retaining wall, so we used rebar every 2 feet (610 millimeters) or so to attach the Outcropping to the Belvedere. Then the Belvedere blocks were epoxied together," Milburn explained.

A 5-foot (1.5-meter) tall Rosetta Outcropping wall allowed for the development of the Stake Center, a nearby meeting hall. Elsewhere in the development, another Outcropping wall allowed for the development of a housing area, and a screen wall was also created using both Outcropping freestanding blocks and Belvedere freestanding blocks. The screen wall was designed to block noise from a nearby freeway and stands 42 to 48-inches (1,067 to 1,219 millimeters) tall in most areas, but stands as tall as 9 to 10 feet (2.7 to 3 meters) in other areas.

THE OUTCOME

Installers were impressed with how quickly and easily the walls went up. In total, the project included approximately 20,000 square feet (1,858 square meters) of Rosetta products.

"The owners are impressed with the quality and appearance of the wall," Milburn explained.

PROJECT DETAILS

Project: The Meadows At Searcy Creek Location: Kansas City, Mo Engineer: Continental Consulting Engineers Block Manufacturer: Midwest Block; Rosetta Of Michigan Installer: BC Hardscapes Year: 2009-2011 Case: 17 - Meadows at Searcy Creek