The new Target Store building site in Rochester, MN presented a difficult challenge to the architectural firm, Yaggy Colby Associates. They needed all the space they had. At the same time there was a large fiber optic cable that couldn’t be disturbed and limited the amount of excavation that would be needed for a traditional geosynthetic reinforced segmental retaining wall (SRW) system. The original solution involved driving H-Pile and veneering the structure with a dry-cast segmental retaining wall unit.

The wall installer, Hardscape Construction, was very familiar with the ability to build taller gravity walls with the Recon Series 50 retaining wall system and recognized potential opportunity to save the owner a significant amount of money. Because the end sections of the retaining wall weren’t as tall as the middle section, there was an opportunity to build a large part of the wall as gravity walls and eliminate the expense of driving H-Pile in these sections. The retaining wall design engineering firm, Civil Solutions Group, was enlisted to redesign the wall using Recon Series 50 units.

The end result was a design-build solution that provided an aesthetically-pleasing wall and that also saved around $100,000 compared to the initial proposed design which was itself a savings over a traditional poured-in-place retaining wall.