By Joyce Kryszak
Amherst, NY – A report presented to Amherst Town officials Monday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recommends careful engineering and oversight to prevent more homes from sinking in the poor soils of Amherst.
The two-year long study determined that the previous "cookie cutter approach" used for design and construction is not good enough when dealing with poor soil. And the report concludes Amherst has a lot of it. The Army Corps' engineers recommend adding new guidelines to the existing, recently revamped building code.
Technical manager Brad Guay hopes the report helps build consensus among building professionals.
"Improving the design and construction of what they have -- design, construction and inspection, and that it doesn't become kind of a fractious debate about what went wrong, but rather, how do we do it right in the future," said Guay.
Guay says the new guidelines should require site specific, engineered foundations, with ongoing inspections to ensure compliance. But town councilman Dan Ward says he favors banning construction in problem areas all together.
"They're unsuitable for construction -- I think that's what everybody knows," said ward. "But they want to beat around the bush to come up with some recommendations that's going to allow construction to continue out there and we're just going to have more and more problems."
But Ward says the board will likely not support such a blanket policy because of pressure from developers. In some damaged homes that were studied, deficient construction did add to the poor soils problems. For example, blueprints in many cases did not match the final construction. Darlene Torbenson is chair of the residents coalition and soils task force. She says how the information is applied is key.
"Even as a homeowner, an average homeowner, we've sat in horror and watched this dynamic take place in our house," said Torbenson. "We couldn't define it before, and now we have a good diagnostic tool."
The report recommends a similar, customized engineering approach for repairing homes with existing damage, as well as education for existing and prospective homeowners. Three more public meetings will be held in May.