Days after a severe summer storm swept through Waterloo Region, the extent of the damage is still growing, including the collapse of a concrete retaining wall. The wall, along Concession Street near McKenzie Street in the Galt area, gave way during Saturday’s storm, sending a large concrete slab crashing onto a sidewalk below. The storm brought heavy rain, strong winds, and a tornado warning to the area. Ted Wronski lives nearby and was inside his home feeding his baby when the structure fell. “Felt like an earthquake, really vibrated the whole floor of the whole house,” Wronski said. “We didn’t really know what happened.” His wife said she was shaken as she often uses that sidewalk. “I’ll take [her baby] for a walk down that path,” said resident Amelia Gundersen-Herman. “The timing is scary. That could have fallen while we were down there.” No injuries were reported. The Region of Waterloo, which is responsible for the wall, said crews secured the area shortly after the incident to ensure public safety. Matt Ratthe, a local landscaper with Ground Dynamics, assumes that the structure was an older poured-concrete wall. He explained that a lack of proper drainage often leads to these types of structural failures. “If it’s an older wall and there’s sand back there, it could have clogged all the drainage pipes,” Ratthe said. “And then that is a recipe for disaster.” Ratthe said pedestrians should watch for warning signs of failing infrastructure. “You can kind of see it starts to bow out in one section. But then the rest is straight and you can tell it’s going to fail right there,” he said. Wronski hopes the region looks into it soon. “Hopefully they don’t just treat it as an isolated incident,” he said. “They look at the whole wall, they start to look at other walls that might be in a similar state.” The Region of Waterloo said it is working on it. “The Region is completing a thorough evaluation of the site and the root cause, with the goal of implementing immediate repairs,” said a spokesperson for the region.
