As residents of Soledad Mountain Road send experts to represent their interests, homeowners on Via Avola become more anxious on the other side of the mountain, playing a waiting game with the city as their street continues to slide.
Although a judge granted access to experts representing residents affected by the Mount Soledad landslide, geologists, engineers and others had trouble inspecting the nearly 20 homes, whose owners were represented by at least three attorneys, until late Monday, Oct. 15.
“We have been at over 100 landslides,” said Steve Borron of American Geotechnical, the project geologist for the Soledad homeowners. “And we have never seen anything like what we are seeing here in San Diego.”
American Geotechnical has offered its expertise at slides such as the large Laguna Niguel landslide, Borron said, where they were able to warn the homeowners in plenty of time, “not at the last minute.”
Near the Soledad Mountain Cross, residents on Via Avola face a different situation because they are sitting on a private road.
Borron warned some homeowners on Via Avola that although the city couldn’t technically “red-tag” their homes, they should not stay because there are signs a slide might occur there.
But, like the Soledad Mountain Road landslide, residents on Via Avola must wait for permits to find out just how fast their road is sliding.
“We are waiting on the property owner consent form,” Borron said. “Then we can have data back in about a week.”
Meanwhile, Borron and other experts from American Geotechnical continue to investigate possible causes of the Oct. 3 landslide on Soledad Mountain Road.
The city said it has completed its topographical survey but is still investigating the cause. As of Oct. 17, six homes remain red-tagged, seven are yellow-tagged and six are now green-tagged.
Experts for the homeowners said that, while they continue to search for the cause of the slide, it was probably due to broken water pipes.
If the landslide caused the water pipes to break, then the sewer lines also would have been affected, but they weren’t, Borron said.
And the Mount Soledad homeowners experienced many water main leaks that may date to July.
According to its website, American Geotechnical says that “although water may trigger a landslide, the water is frequently not the basic cause … More frequently, the underlying cause is the adverse soil or geologic condition.”
“All of this area is unstable,” Borron said. “The ground all has the same type of clay.”
While those whose homes have already slid count on experts to assess the cause of the landslide, residents on the other side wade through the city’s legalities, with the hope that they will avoid what their neighbors have gone through.
The city continues to install devices like inclinometers to measure any continued movement in the ground, while the “most cost-effective methods for repairing damaged roadways” continue to be discussed, said Mayor Jerry Sanders.