What's Involved with Storm Water Drain Construction?

There's been a lot of talk about storm water drain construction after Hurricane Issac pummeled the Gulf Coast last week. The unfortunate truth is when massive amounts of rainfall occur for hours on end it's impossible for drainage systems to keep up with the demand.

Unless there's a weather catastrophe, storm water drain construction doesn't get a lot of attention. However, the people who work in the industry provide us with a service that greatly reduces potential of flooding in our communities.  

Municipal storm drainage systems are comprised of multiple components that collectively gather and carry away storm water. Although based on simple principles of gravity, the way systems work is quite an engineering marvel.

Residential and city streets, along with interstate systems are designed to allow rain and melting snow to travel downhill. Water is pulled into street gutters and travels through catch basins and a network of underground pipes until it can be discharged into a body of water.

Even though these systems protect the public from flooding, the water they carry away ends up polluting larger bodies of water. Storm water runoff is loaded with toxins. Chemical substances that have been applied to roofs, lawns, driveways, parking lots, and streets wind up in nearby lakes and oceans.

With that in mind, the EPA monitors systems that discharge substances into American waters. Additionally, storm drain contractors are required by law to utilize construction materials and installation procedures which are approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.

A significant level of organization and hard labor goes into constructing municipal storm drainage systems. The process is multi-faceted and involves many people. Project owners work with design engineers to acquire construction blueprints. These plans are the life force of the project and need to account for every scenario long before laborers break ground.

These days, engineers have the luxury of being able to access subsurface utility engineering SUE methods. SUE technology provides detailed 3D maps of the construction site and shows exactly what lies beneath the surface.

Along with identifying any dangers lurking underground, SUE data is extremely helpful for determining water flow rates. This information lets engineers know pipe dimensions and provides an understanding of flow routes directed toward open bodies of water.  

Storm water drainage systems require multiple components in order to take water from one place and deposit it in another. Everything has to work in harmony or the system can fail and result in environmental catastrophe.

Since storm water drain construction is a highly complicated task it is strongly recommended to use reputable wet utility construction contractors such as Kana Pipeline. Look for seasoned contractors who comply with EPA regulations and are experienced in the kind project involved.