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Drought could lead to problems for Beacon Hill, Back Bay homes

By adamg on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 2:47pm

Many of the buildings sit on wooden pilings that only rot when exposed to dry conditions. The Beacon Hill Times reports on nascent concern in the area about the pilings.

Neighborhoods: 
Back Bay
Beacon Hill
Topics: 
Home 'n' hearth
Free tagging: 
Drought


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Comments

By N on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 4:23pm.

Trinity Church is built on wooden pilings. Hope that doesn't fall apart...

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By Irma la Douce on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 5:15pm.

According to the structural engineers currently examining the foundation, Trinity's piling system is so overbuilt that more than half of the diameter of every piling could rot away and the church still wouldn't be in danger. In addition, Trinity has its own on-site monitoring wells, so if the ground-water level gets low, church officials simply leave garden hoses running into the wells for a few weeks to bring the levels back up.

The above is from a 2003 Globe article, archived on boston.com. http://archive.boston.com/news/science/articles/2003/08/26/a_church_on_s...

I remember touring Trinity years ago and learning about the system they have to monitor the pilings, installed sometime after the Hancock Tower was built and caused the church to shift on its foundation.

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By SoBo-Yuppie on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 6:43pm.

...to my Yuppie Brethren in Back Bay and Beacon Hill.

- The Original SoBo Yuppie

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By KBHer on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 6:54pm.

I believe the plans detailing the piling locations for many houses were lost in a fire a long time ago as well. The height of the pilings isn't uniform - in fact it can change substantially between adjacent buildings, which makes monitoring rot and installing steel supports for rotted piers so expensive since each individual location would have to be surveyed and ID'ed before securing the structure can happen. I think newer buildings (maybe over a certain square footage) on made land are required to have water recharge systems to replenish groundwater levels as so much water is lost/diverted by impervious surfaces.

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By WalkingTheDog on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 7:10pm.

Wood pilings are one of the reasons I'm glad I moved out of a South End townhouse several years ago. That and earthquakes and the lack of modern fire safety systems. Low probability; high severity.

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By SwirlyGrrl on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 9:34pm.

I seem to remember houses and other buildings were sinking because they were on pilings and lacked foundations or something of that sort. Talking 1980s here.

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By Ron Newman on Tue, 08/23/2016 - 10:15pm.

All of those neighborhoods are largely built on filled land, and feature similar architecture.

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