Building a Castle Wall

The street in front of my house has been under construction since last summer. The street, itself, has been rebuilt. They’re now rebuilding the retaining walls on the far side. (On this side, the houses are the retaining walls; most of them are single-story fronts with walk-out basements in the back.)

The old retaining walls were poured concrete slabs. It looked a bit prison-yard-ish (or “urban”, if you like concrete). The new ones are Lego-like concrete blocks (very large concrete blocks). As you can see, it looks as if they’re building a castle wall across (“on the other side of” is probably better phrasing!) the street. It looks so much better. I’m not sure about the cost/benefit ratio, but the benefit is certainly there both aesthetically and structurally (these are much thicker and being blocks can expand and contract with the seasons and not crack).

What prompted this post is this:

I do hope that the homeowner requested that his driveway be removed. If not, someone is in for a big surprise. There is access from the alley behind the house. That bus has not been trapped there all winter.