Saugus hires engineer to inspect crumbling wall

SAUGUS – The town is reaching out to the residents of Hesper Street by hiring a geotechnical engineer to inspect the stability of the retaining wall that partly collapsed following a recent rainstorm.Hesper Street resident Gretchen Fyfe was with her neighbor Thursday when the retaining wall behind the neighbor’s house came crashing down, sending them and at least eight other families scurrying into the night.”It sounded like really awful thunder,” she said.A section of the 400-foot long and 30-foot high wall that sits behind four unfinished homes atop Hitchings Hill Road crumbled, sending debris rolling down the steep embankment. None of the homes suffered serious damage, but the stability of the remaining portion of the wall is unknown.Town officials met Monday to determine what, if anything, could be done to help the neighbors who were warned Friday to re-enter their homes at their own risk.”At their own risk,” asked Judy Fyfe, who lives with her daughter Gretchen at 49 Hesper St. “For how long?”Bisignani admitted that the town was walking a fine line because the property on Hitchings Hill Road is privately owned. He said any remedial action by the town means the town would automatically assume liability for the entire problem. The homeowners, he said, really need to seek out the developer to remedy the situation.The unfinished homes along Hitchings Hill Road resemble a ghost town. Red work stoppage signs hang on the front doors and yellow police tape encompasses all four yards. A large piece of construction equipment sits behind and between two of the homes, mere feet from the top of the retaining wall.Selectman Stephen Horlick said the equipment also concerns him because if more of the wall gives way the backhoe could go too.”Our only concern is public safety,” Bisignani said. “I am engaging a geotechnical engineer so we can get, with some degree of accuracy, the (stability) of the wall.”Bisignani said state officials have already cleared the town in regards to the permitting process for the project.”They told us everything was in order,” he said. “All the permitting was done correctly. We followed all the proper procedure.”However, there was at least one worker in the area who was not authorized to be there and Town Counsel John Vasapolli said that, coupled with the rainstorm, might have contributed to the collapse.”Anytime you have a new contractor working he needs to be permitted,” Vasapolli explained.Fyfe said all the neighbors are back in their homes despite the warnings and, with rain in the forecast, many, including her, are nervous. Although the wall does not extend behind the Fyfe home, the steep incline topped with rocks and debris does. If it does rain, Fyfe said, she is concerned the entire hillside could give way.Fyfe also said the collapse was not the first time debris from the construction site above ended up in someone’s back yard.”We tried to stop (the development) from the very beginning but we never could,” she said. “There have been problems right from the start.”