Aftermath: San Antonio retaining wall collapse

.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/business/84174497.html

Centex didn't have a building permit for a 1,000 ft. long, 30 FT. HIGH, retaining wall?!? Are you kidding me?!?

"...we try to hire qualified people."
Not ALL builders "try to hire qualified people".

“In the last few weeks, though, the city has made it abundantly clear that it now requires a permit. After Wednesday's meeting, the city also said it will consider amending the Unified Development Code to include permitting walls during land development.”

Nothing like closing the barn door after the horse ran away.

“San Antonio home builders this week started scrambling to find engineering documents for retaining walls built in the past three years. Home builders have until March 31 to apply for permits — retroactively — for retaining walls higher than 4 feet, and must show that the walls were both designed by an engineer and built correctly.”

A LOT of good that’s going to do! Once a wall is built, how do you know it was built correctly "RETROACTIVELY"? Are they going to excavate the footings to see if they’re the proper size? Are they going to take a jack hammer to the wall to see if it has the proper steel reinforcement? The only way to determine if a retaining wall is INCORRECTLY built "RETROACTIVELY" is when it moves, cracks, or fails completely. TOO LATE!

“I think as we go along and more information becomes available, there will be some adjustments on the fly,” Moore said. “We'll just have to keep working on it.”

Closing the barn door after the horse ran away. This should be a wake-up call for all people who bought new homes and thought that government was doing their job protecting them from cowboy builders.
.
.