Stormwater design is one of the most critical components of urban engineering. Unfortunately in Canada there is no national standard of design principals used by municipalities or approval jurisdictions. I come from Australia where there is a national standard called Australian Rainfall and Runoff that is published by Engineers Australia. Here in Canada, it seems [...]
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There is a rainfall warning on for today with 40-50mm of rain forecast in the next 24 hours. There is a modest amount of snow on the ground here in Castlegar, more up in Rossland, so there would be some snow melt occurring as well. If it comes, this is probably the biggest daily rainfall [...]
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Public spaces should be respected and kept clean for the enjoyment of all; and around here, there is a group of people who are not all pulling their weight – Dog Owners.
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The idea of collecting water from the roof of our home elicits some primeval response related to survival – we need water, we need security, it is natural to want to be able to grow things. The crazy suburban fiesta of the past 40 or 50 years has removed us from the realities of food and survival, with centralization and expansion of everything being the theme of the era.
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When I walk out onto a construction site, often I’m greeted with the familiar site of silt fencing installed or maintained incorrectly. Fences flapping in the breeze, pushed over by bulldozers, located in strange places, I’ve seen it all.
Silt (or sediment) fences are barriers constructed from geosynthetic material placed to intercept and control sheet flow from disturbed lands. Silt fences are not designed to filter particles, rather they create a containment system to allow the deposition of particles.
Where do you use it?
What do you need to watch out for?
These are some pretty simple suggestions, and considering how often this product is installed, you’d think it would be easy to get it right.
Picture from the Kentucky Erosion Prevention and Sediment Control Field Guide
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Most construction sites seem to focus on installing huge sediment basins and miles of silt fences, but allow whole hillsides of material to remain at the mercy of the wind and the rain.
The simple fact is that controlling the very erosion that can cause the sedimentation in the first place is more than half the battle if you bother to follow some simple guidelines.
Once you’ve got the erosion sorted out, then you can worry about the fact that the particles are being transported, and use best practices to detain and or filter sediment from water.
More about that soon.
Picture from the Kentucky Erosion Prevention and Sediment Control Field Guide
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While working in the consulting side of Civil Engineering I was able to see a lot of different erosion and sediment control techniques in practice. What baffles me is that something this simple can be done so badly, or not at all!
While written from a US perspective the Field Manual on Sediment and Erosion Control Best Management Practices for Contractors and Inspectors
There are a lot of mistakes seen commonly in erosion and sediment control, here are my top three…
Check out the book at amazon.com if you are involved in the management or inspection of erosion and sediment control.
I’ll write more on each of these, and maybe more in the coming weeks.
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Scrap metal is one of the unlikely markets that is forcing municipalities to rethink how they manage their infrastructure…
Several hours a day, five days a week, [Francis McConnell] stakes out junkyards. Pretending to read a newspaper, Mr. McConnell sits near the entrances and writes down descriptions of passing pickup trucks and shirtless men pushing shopping carts. His mission is to figure out who is stealing the city’s manhole covers and its storm drain and street grates, increasingly valuable commodities on the scrap market. More than 2,500 covers and grates have disappeared in the past year, up from an annual average of about 100.
Source: With a Surge in Iron and Steel Prices, Thieves Are Stealing Metal Manhole Covers – NYTimes.com
Philadelphia has quite the problem, causing liability issues, as well as the cost of replacing the manholes. To combat this, the City is installing chains to secure the lids…
But so far, only 300 of the city’s more than 70,000 manhole and inlet covers have been locked.
Cities across the country are working with the police, junkyard dealers and industry associations to improve the chances of catching thieves, but while the price of metals keeps increasing – so will the problem. I haven’t noticed a problem around here, anyone got stories?
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