Northfield, OHIO -The Nordonia Hills City School District is in the process of fixing the retaining wall under the high school stadium’s home team bleachers after discovering that it had failed due to faulty design and construction. The bleachers were originally constructed in 2010 during the building of the district’s new athletic facility.
After discovering the failing wall last year, the district contacted the contractor to fix the problem. When the contractor claimed he was not liable because the design was the cause of the problem, the district contacted the architect, who claimed it was not built correctly.
At that point, the district, through its legal counsel, retained the services of two independent engineering consultants to determine the cause of the retaining wall’s failure, who concluded that both the architect and the contractor were at fault. The district again reached out to the architect and contractor, but neither responded in a timely manner.
At its meeting on June 13, through an urgent necessity resolution, the Board of Education hired Infinity Construction out of Warrensville Heights to make the repairs, as the wall could eventually become a safety issue. This company is familiar with the district as they previously won the bid to complete phase II of the athletic facility project. The board also resolved to take legal action against the original contractor and architect to recoup the cost of the repairs.
“In 2008, our community voted and approved the construction of a new athletic facility. We have now determined that a retaining wall was not designed or constructed properly,” said Business Director Tom Hartman. “We are now taking steps to fix this issue so that we have the facility our residents paid for.” “We want to protect taxpayer dollars by making those responsible pay for the repairs,” said Board President Tammy Strong.
Work to repair the retaining wall is expected to begin during the week of June 27. The project is expected to take six to eight weeks and should be completed by the first official athletic event on Aug. 19.
For more information about the Nordonia Hills School District, visit www.nordoniaschools.org.
Victor Milani went out this week and snapped some pictures of the ongoing project:
