Project Overview

Green Stormwater Infrastructure Redesign: Design Proposal

ENGR 103 – Spring 2012

Engineering Design Lab III

Lab Section:		028	Date Submitted:	April 20, 2012
Group Number:	02

Section Faculty:	Dr. Peter Herczfeld	Advisor:	Kim Marcellus

Group Members:	Adam Bleiman	Kevin O’Connell
	Sean Coffey	Jie San Jenny Tcheng
	Aidan Jamison-Frank

Problem Overview

Due to the city infrastructure, many of the surfaces, like concrete, are impervious to water absorption. This leads to water runoff and pollution. From there, the water goes through an immense amount of processing before it is safe to be released into the drinking water supply or into a body of water. If the amount of water going down the drain could be limited it would decrease our dependency on water processing plants, reduce the volume of pollutants to be processed by the plants, and increase city sustainability. As cities expand, the problem of stormwater management will become more pressing, making it even more important to find a solution.

Design Constraints

There are several design constraints that must be considered while constructing the infrastructure. As the project will take place either on a public or private area, permissions need to be granted from the owner of the location or the City of Philadelphia in order to start the construction. The design has to conform to the safety measures and municipal ordinances regarding public infrastructures and avoid or at least minimize its interference with the local pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Furthermore, it has to take in consideration preexisting underground structures and the budget needed to actualize the plan has to be reasonable.

Pre-Existing Solutions

In order to accommodate all of the excess stormwater in the city, many projects have already been completed or are in the process of completion.  Of these projects, many only keep a small amount of stormwater from ending up in the sewer.  However, because of their small scale, many are being put up all around the city in an effort to reduce the amount of stormwater entering the city’s sewers and flooding the city’s streets.   These projects include the following:

Storm Water Tree Trenches

Tanks under trees collect water, which is taken up by the tree and eventually evaporates.  If necessary, tanks can slowly release water in the existing sewers over time.

Rain Gardens

Rain gardens are shallow depressions with deep rooted plants.  The depressions helps guide water into the garden, and the roots of the plants absorb what comes in.

Storm Water Planters

Storm water planters are small vegetated areas which collect and filter storm water by running it through layers of mulch, soil, and plant root systems.  They look no different than the decorative planters seen in many places around the city.

Storm Water Basins

Depressions in the ground collect and store excess storm water.  The water can either be used by surrounding vegetation or released slowly into the existing sewers when they are not under heavy intake.

Infiltration/Storage Trenches

Below ground repositories which are usually filled with rocks.  They slow storm water as in approaches the sewer system and much of it seeps to the bottom and is absorbed into the soil below.

Porous Pavement

Porous pavement allows water to seep into it, rather than across it, and usually leads to a storage trench beneath. 

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Design Goal

The goal of this project is to redesign street level infrastructure to better manage stormwater.  This infrastructure should prevent stormwater from flooding the streets or from carrying too many pollutants into the sewer systems.  These functions require that the infrastructure be located at a strategic place, positioned in an appropriate way, and consist of appropriate materials and design to maximize stormwater collection.  This infrastructure will be designed at a corner of the sidewalk of a street going downhill.  It will consist of a planter filled with soil and plants surrounded by concrete curbs on all sides except for one.  That side will consist of a path from the street to the planter on the side where the street is at a higher elevation, so that stormwater from the street will naturally flow into the soil.  There will be the original sidewalk curb on one side of that soil path, and a new curb on the other, so that water that flows into it does not escape.  The planter will be filled with soil and various plants to absorb the water.  The design will be shaped and positioned so that it will not disrupt pedestrian or car traffic after implementation and the traffic disruption during construction will be minimal.  There will be a pipe that connects to the sewer system that will transport water there in the case that the planter becomes full.  While this design incorporates elements from pre-existing solutions, it combines them in an innovative manner.

Project Deliverables

 In addition to the proposal and reports, this project will contain two design deliverables, as well as surveying measurements and calculations regarding design dimensions.

AutoCAD Design: Before and After

The chosen deliverables for the Storm Water Management project include an AutoCAD design of the city block to show both a before and after layout of site changes. Layers in the AutoCAD program will allow for multiple layers depicting each change to the site, as well as other pertinent information about the affected construction area.  For both the before and after drawings, there will be a top view and elevation views.  The top views and some of the elevation views will be based off of landscape images found using Google Maps and Google Earth.

Illustration

There will be an illustration on paper of the redesigned infrastructure in the context of the surrounding infrastructure and the natural and human activities surrounding it.  It will be rendered to provide a realistic depiction.

Project Schedule

Week	Goals
3	Design Proposal
4	Location Selection and Site Surveying
5	Research and Planning
6	Google Earth Landscape Analysis
7	AutoCAD Draft
8	Materials and Illustration
9	Budget and Final Design Drafts

Projected Budget

An inclusive budget analysis form from current economic costs will be developed to accurately foresee the direct research, design, and construction expenditures.  The budget will encompass the labor and materials for research, design, and construction.  The further breakdown of the categories will present cost data over different periods of time and for the various categories of materials and laborers.