Big concrete wall will look like rock

A Spokane firm, Spilker Precast, is producing some 4,000 concrete blocks for an 1,100-foot-long retaining wall at the new K-12 school building site in Coulee Dam.

The blocks, which will come in two sizes, one about 1,200 pounds and the other 4,000 pounds, will be used to expand the area of the school site.

Owner Timothy Spilker said his company will be finished producing the blocks within a few weeks.

The blocks will be set just below the hill that overlooks the football field and then the space filled in to create addition site space for a school bus route alongside the buildings.

The Spilker firm will truck the blocks to the site where Segmented Systems, another Spokane firm, will set them in place.

The blocks are cast in metal frames with the exposed side having a stone look. The exposed surface will be cleaned and then colored to match the rocky faces of the hillsides in the area.

The retaining wall will be from just a few feet high to some 20 feet high and take about 4,000 blocks to complete.

Blocks are being created and poured through special arrangement with Coulee Concrete, with that firm supplying the product and using their trucks to make the pours.

The concrete blocks will sit on a gravel bed and be set back one inch at each block level.

Work on the wall is expected to begin in about two weeks.

The retaining wall will have some six million pounds of concrete with some 24,000 square feet of wall surface.