Retaining Walls

Because of the steep hill, the landscaper and excavation team have had to design a number of retaining walls around the house. We like the large, natural boulder look, so the pictures below show "machine laid walls." Until today, I couldn't quite imagine how this is done, because these boulders are BIG! The first picture shows the machine, with Gary at the controls, selecting boulders for the wall. Gary is a very experienced operator, as you can see by the quality of the walls below. He uses the jaws of the machine to set the boulders in place, aided by an assistant who uses a laser based leveling system to tell him exactly what thickness boulder is needed. He places the boulder and manipulates it so precisely with the machine, that it looks like an extension of his hand. The bottom 2 photos show some already completed walls. Click on the video at bottom to see how fast he does this in real time.