Centex Homes today will start shoring up the hillside in a Northwest Side neighborhood where the ground shifted and a massive retaining wall collapsed.

The city approved the slope stabilization plans after a Monday meeting with the builder. The work is expected to take about a month to complete, and the city plans to monitor the work daily.

Centex, the builder and developer of Rivermist and The Hills of Rivermist, also agreed to stop home construction on three lots adjacent to the collapsed wall at the request of City Councilman Reed Williams, a city news release said.

The slope stabilization is just the first step in plans to reconstruct the failed retaining wall.

The slope stabilization plan calls for using about “100 reinforcing pins, which are 30 feet long and between 2 to 3 feet in diameter,” to keep the hillside from moving further, according to a statement from the city.

Once the slope is stable, the builder can deal with the retaining wall.

Centex will present a design concept for the new wall to the city by Friday and will present complete engineering plans by April 30.

The company has offered to buy back 27 homes in a neighborhood and plans to spend $4 million to $5 million to rebuild the retaining wall, which collapsed Jan. 24.

The buyback offers are being extended to owners of homes in which certificates of occupancy were revoked. Many of the homeowners have been living in hotels, apartments and rental homes, with limited access to their property.

Centex said it will take six months to build the new wall, and the city has said it will not allow people to live in the affected homes until all construction work is complete.

Terracon, an engineering company retained by Centex to investigate the wall collapse and soil movement, found the “slope failure and damage to the retaining wall was the result of deep soil movement on the slope above and below the wall,” according to a Centex news release.

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