Retaining walls are built to stabilize slopes, protect buildings on slopes, provide foundations for buildings built into hillsides, make raised garden beds, level roadways built into hillsides, create parking areas where none existed or, in one case in which we were involved, provide a flat area to build one of the largest shopping centers in the Birmingham area. That retaining wall was 18' high, and 900' long!

Retaining walls can be built of modular masonry, timbers, or stone, but the most stable material, and the one with the greatest structural strength is reinforced concrete. They also can have a cantilevered base with soil anchors, pilings, or designed with a wide base that acts almost as a buttress. In all cases the weight of the soil and of buildings above the slope are designed into the concrete retaining wall system used.