Abstract:
For decades, the 24-acre hillside at Irishtown Bend in Cleveland, Ohio, had been quietly moving toward the Cuyahoga River. The slope's instability threatened the navigation channel that supplies more than 22,000 jobs. A major failure could have blocked maritime traffic entirely, a potential annual economic loss of $4.7 billion according to the Port of Cleveland.
In 2023 Cleveland Cuyahoga County Port Authority awarded a contract and selected Richard Goettle, Inc. (Goettle) as general contractor, with Goettle self-performing the bulkhead wall, anchor installations, and earth retention for the sewer scope. The project was designed by Osborne Engineering, Krech Ojard & Associates, Mueser Rutledge Consulting Engineers, and Goettle. Work began in August 2023 and was completed in November 2025.
20th-century river dredging steepened the bank and removed natural support. Additionally, fill placed on the upper slope in the 1960s to accommodate Franklin Avenue and a public housing complex added a surcharge load the hillside never fully absorbed. A 2015 investigation by Barr & Prevost revealed a complex subsurface profile of fill, sand, silt, clay layers, and glacial till above shale bedrock. The strata slope toward the river, and shear strength at the toe drops to roughly 1,000 psf, the zone where past failures have occurred. Groundwater fluctuations exceeding 30 feet in a single day, driven by water main breaks and stormwater infiltration, pushed conditions from marginal to critical. Structural intervention was the only viable path forward.
The solution was a 2,200-foot combi-wall of 54-inch and 60-inch diameter pipe piles at 11-foot centers, with interlocked sheet piles driven between them, all tied back into bedrock with high-capacity tieback anchors. Goettle first removed approximately 70,000 cubic yards of fill from the upper slope to reduce driving forces and establish a stable working platform. Anchors ranged from 12 to 26 strands, installed at 45 degrees to lengths between 175 and 230 feet depending on bedrock elevation. Each carries a design load exceeding 1,000,000 pounds. Custom components from Williams Form Engineering, including a 750-ton jack and chair assembly made Irishtown Bend one of the largest anchor programs the manufacturer has undertaken.
Beyond the original scope, buried industrial debris and timber dock structures required a larger vibratory hammer and extensive clamshell removal. Construction demanded simultaneous land and marine operations across seven concurrent work fronts and crews were provided a weekly a 48-hour work window during winter months. Throughout, a real-time instrumentation network guided crane placement, sequencing, and crew access.
With the hillside now stabilized, the Port of Cleveland and regional partners plan to develop a public riverfront park. The wall, anchors, and regraded slope form the permanent structural foundation for that future. After decades of movement, Irishtown Bend has been brought to rest.