The City of Charlotte Engineering & Property Management Division contracted with Armstrong Glen, P.C. to prepare calculations, drawings, special provisions, cost opinions and construction phase assistance for a retaining wall to be a part of the City’s Remount Road Sidewalk project. The sidewalk was designed in-house by City of Charlotte forces. Armstrong Glen was tasked with the work of designing approximately 570 linear feet of retaining wall along Remount Road, north and south of Watson Drive. The final retaining wall design was a cantilevered reinforced masonry wall with brick veneer and a cast-in-place concrete cap. Wall height varied from four feet to eight feet. The wall section north of Watson Drive was very near to a large Duke Energy electrical substation. Meeting with Duke Energy revealed that Duke would not allow a CMU, brick or concrete wall to be constructed near their substation. The reason for this is that electrical current could arc from the overhead lines to the wall, and shock pedestrians on the sidewalk, Armstrong Glen designed a slightly elevated sidewalk, with a turned-down slab on the side away from Remount Road. Duke Energy installed fiberglass fence posts with non-conductive fence fabric to eliminate danger to pedestrians. The wall was completed in December of 2015.
