A steep plot with no vehicle access above the halfway point, and a client who needed to get a concrete truck to the top.

The wall

Rock placed to drain, not just to stack. Free-draining backfill behind the face and a land drain at the toe, so water leaves the structure instead of loading it. A rock wall that holds water behind it is a rock wall that eventually leans.

At four metres we stayed inside what can be built without engineered design, which kept a consultant off the client’s budget.

The road

Two hundred and sixty metres of access road, built the boring way: subgrade proof-rolled, sub-base laid and tested, then surfaced. The concrete truck made it to the top on the first attempt, in February.

Handover

Final grading ready for planting, and a parcel with no spoil heaps, no ruts and no leftover material — which is the part clients actually remember.