Retaining wall for railway embankment?

[Michael77781]

Hi,

My garden adjoins a railway embankment. When we moved in, the bottom 15 feet of the garden was overgrown with conifers and laurel that I've slowly been clearing.

The ground starts to slope up to the railway before our boundary so I'm planning on incorporating one or two 'steps'.

At the boundary, I'm not sure whether to have fencing or a wall. I'm concerned that fencing may succumb to movement of earth from the railway.

Do I need to think of a retaining wall? If so, how do you calculate what it is retaining. It's not like the wall needs to support the embankment (hopefully!!), or is it?

Access is an issue as the house extension means to get to the garden, you have to go through the house.

I'm a total noob (if that wasn't already clear!) and happy to get the pros in if necessary but would like to do a lot myself.

Thanks

Michael

 

[OwainDIYer]

Contact Network Rail and find out if your garden is supporting the railway.

http://www.networkrail.co.uk/aspx/3287.aspx

 

[r896neo]

Is it clear where your boundary is? Doing any work near a railway embankment without clear advise is a bad idea. Contact rail authority as suggested, any chance of a photo? Are we talking a 45 degree slope or a gentle gradient?

 

[big-all]

theres a fair chance the bit on the embankment has been "borrowed " over the years without permission have you looked on the deeds off your house