By Joyce Kryszak
Amherst, NY – A half million dollar soil study to find out why homes are sinking in Amherst has been completed. Town officials will receive and begin reviewing the Army Corps of Engineers' 200-page report Thursday.
As suspected, poor soils were found to be a major factor in the problem that has caused millions of dollars of damage to about 1,100 homes in the affluent community. Brad Guay, project engineer for the study, says that Amherst isn't the only place where poor soil and development might not always mix well.
"I get calls every day from people outside of this area," Guay said. "I recently heard from a man from Cleveland whose walls were bowing in, and he was interested in our results. I think it will be somewhat surprising for folks in our area that we had expansive soil here. They'd like to learn from that."
The report will include recommendations for further study, as well as changes to the building codes to prevent sinking problems in the future.
Town officials say they were eager for the findings. They hope verification that expansive and mushy soils are at fault could help secure some federal money to deal with remediation.
The full report will be presented to the town board next Monday, with three additional public hearings scheduled in early May.
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