Castle Hills Foundation Issues (Dallas, Sherman: real estate, house, neighborhood)

[escanlan]

Originally Posted by Korel

There is however a fault line running from Grand Prairie, through Los Colinas, part of Valley Ranch and then through Carrollton (Knob Hill and Castle Hills).

Hello Korel,

As an Inspector I always like to read about these things FFR (For Future Reference). Do you have any links to this information? It would be appreciated.

[Rakin]

Isn't it part of the Balcones Escarpment that starts in Oklahoma runs through Austin and farthur south ?

Balcones Fault - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Korel]

Originally Posted by eltbee

Are you suggesting that the soil movements (and the resulting roadway/foundation issues) in these areas are the result of tectonic activity? I think it is more a result of the plasticity index of the expansive clay soils in our region - some areas much worse than others (i.e. that region that runs through Las Colinas/Valley Ranch/etc).

Yes there is a fault. Drive west on I-635 from I-35E. About MacAurthur the pavement changes from concrete to asphalt and then back to concrete. That's the fault line. It's very small, as fault lines go. Back in May 2009 we had a very minor earthquake just west of Dallas. A lot of folks are blaming the earthquake on the drilling in the Barnet Shale. Maybe that was the cause. I don't know. Yes there are also very high plasticity indexes in the soils around there. Ranges have gone above PI45 in Los Colinas. But there is also a fault line.

[Korel]

Originally Posted by escanlan

Hello Korel,

As an Inspector I always like to read about these things FFR (For Future Reference). Do you have any links to this information? It would be appreciated.

I don't have any web sites. I work with several engineering firms doing foundation work and from what I have been told, it's common knowledge around the engineering profession in north Texas. This is just information I have gathered from water cooler talk with different engineers.

[Korel]

Originally Posted by Rakin

Isn't it part of the Balcones Escarpment that starts in Oklahoma runs through Austin and farthur south ?

Balcones Fault - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Thanks for the link. I also found this link from the DMN.

[Korel]

One more. Go to Google Maps and look up Irving Texas. Zoom in on the intersection of I-635 and MacAurthur Road. Turn off Labels so you can see the pavement. Now, I have been told by TXDOT engineers that the reason there is asphalt in that section is to keep the road from buckling. Traffic traveling 60~70 mph (and a few doing +80) would loose control if the pavement buckled and somebody hit it at a high speed. The other roads are lower speeds and are all concrete. Besides, TXDOT didn't design the smaller roads.

Then maybe again, they were all pulling my leg . But I don't think they were.

[escanlan]

Rakin,

Wow! You just about have to be a Geologist to find any information on it! Seems plain text word searches are not showing much of anything. I checked out the link, which led to another, which led to another, etc., and finally came upon a map of the Balcones Escarpment, http://lib.utexas.edu/geo/balcones_e...ges/p2fig1.gif.

I would not doubt there are fault lines in this area. I just can't find any reliable source that lists them. I did run across one map that was so convoluted you could not read it.

Ya'll just blew my night! Looks like I'll spend hours looking this one up. I hate to give up on something interesting. Of course you know what happens? In the process of searching for this I'll find 8 hours more worth of other interesting reading. I'll wind up finding answers to year old questions by the time I'm done.

[EmBee]

Originally Posted by Korel

One more. Go to Google Maps and look up Irving Texas. Zoom in on the intersection of I-635 and MacAurthur Road. Turn off Labels so you can see the pavement. Now, I have been told by TXDOT engineers that the reason there is asphalt in that section is to keep the road from buckling. Traffic traveling 60~70 mph (and a few doing +80) would loose control if the pavement buckled and somebody hit it at a high speed. The other roads are lower speeds and are all concrete. Besides, TXDOT didn't design the smaller roads.

Then maybe again, they were all pulling my leg . But I don't think they were.

I have not confirmed it, but I found it odd that TxDOT will change from concrete to asphalt just in that section of IH-635. Most likely what happened was there were lots of cracks and movements in the concrete pavement in that section that they seal the cracks and overlay ~2 to 3" asphalt on top of the concrete pavement to smooth the ride and extend the life of the pavement.

Similar procedure was done on the President George Bush Turnpike (190) east of IH-35 to just north of Trinity Mills Rd (you can also see it using Goggle Map aerial). IMHO both of these instances are due to the movement of expansive soil and not due to the presence of fault line.

[momof2dfw]

No, that part of 6-35 has always been ashpalt if I remember correctly. I worked out there even before it was built. It is BAD thru there. Never and I mean NEVER try to take drink of anything going thru there. Back before 6-35 was extended westward past I-35 the side streets that were all in that area were always having repairs done to them. It is a very low lying area and why they are even allowing some building to go in thru there is just flat out amazing to me. I would not build a doghouse on ANY piece of dirt that is anywhere near 190 from I-35 all the way to 6-35 and then up thru Valley Ranch. NO WAY!

Every bit of dirt has just about been analyzed. I used to have the soil survey book for all of Denton County. You could probably find such info online now. It went into great detail about the soil in each area and the topography and all. That entire region is just BAD! I remember when the houses in Knob Hill were first built - foundation problems galore with a lot of them. It was also always said that there was an underground water "lake" behind Newman Smith HS and I do know many of those houses had foundation issues. And there were homes built in Carrollton in the 80's that were NOT engineered. My dad worked with many of the builders during that time in that area. Trust me, they were not all engineering their foundations. Not to name any names but one "custom" builder was building homes that won't even pass a basic inspection and there is no way they could have when they were built either. My parents lived in Carrollton in one of the areas that was bad for foundations (I grew up there) and they had to have foundation work done twice.

[escanlan]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Every bit of dirt has just about been analyzed. I used to have the soil survey book for all of Denton County. You could probably find such info online now. It went into great detail about the soil in each area and the topography and all.

You can obtain a lot of this information at the USDA Soil Data Mart site, Soil Data Mart - Home.. It takes some getting used to to get the information you want but it is there.