Storm Drain and Drainage
Drainage is the scope that determines whether everything else survives the winter. It is also the one most often value engineered by people who will not be there when it rains.
We build storm drain, detention, and water quality facilities to the standard of the agency that will inspect them.
Everything else on the site depends on this working
Drainage failure is not a punch list item. It floods, it undermines, it erodes slopes, and it does all of that in front of the public during the first significant storm. The systems are also increasingly complicated, because water quality treatment requirements have grown substantially and the facilities that satisfy them have real construction cost and real maintenance obligations.
What we build
Water quality facilities have to actually work
Bioretention areas, infiltration systems, and proprietary treatment units are only effective if built to the specification: correct soil media, correct underdrain, correct elevations, no compaction of the infiltration surface. All four are routinely compromised in the field by crews treating them as landscape features. We build them as the hydraulic structures they are.
Elevations are the whole design
Gravity drainage lives on inverts. A structure set two tenths high is a permanent ponding problem. We survey inverts as they are set rather than checking at the end, because at the end the fix is removing and resetting a structure with pipe already connected on both sides.
Sequencing with grading
Storm drain almost always goes in during or immediately after rough grading, deeper than the wet utilities that cross it, and before any surface improvement. It also has to function as an interim drainage system through construction, which is a different configuration from the finished one and needs to be planned.
Maintenance obligations
Treatment facilities carry long term maintenance requirements recorded against the property. We provide the as-built and O and M information the agency requires for acceptance, because the facility does not get accepted without it.
Drainage capabilities
- RCP and thermoplastic storm drain
- Catch basins and inlets
- Junction structures and manholes
- Headwalls and energy dissipators
- Outfalls and slope protection
- Detention and retention basins
- Underground detention systems
- Bioretention and bioswales
- Infiltration systems
- Proprietary treatment units
- Trash capture devices
- Concrete channels and ditches
How we run this work
Every scope is bid against real quantities and built to the governing agency's standard.
Invert survey record
Structure and pipe inverts verified as they are set, not discovered to be wrong after connection.
Treatment facility submittals
Soil media, underdrain, and component submittals reviewed and approved before installation, not after.
Interim drainage plan
How the site drains through construction, which is a different system from the finished one.
Infiltration surface protection
A documented plan to keep equipment off infiltration areas, which is the most common cause of a facility that does not perform.
Testing and inspection record
Pipe testing, structure inspection, and the agency observations required for acceptance.
As-built and O and M package
The documentation the agency requires to accept the facility and record the maintenance obligation.
Questions we get on this scope
Can you value engineer the drainage?
We will price alternatives, and we will tell you plainly which reductions we think are false economy. Drainage is the last place on a site we would recommend saving money, because the failure mode is public, expensive, and arrives on a schedule nobody controls.
Do you build bioretention and infiltration facilities?
Yes, and we build them as hydraulic structures rather than landscape features. Correct media, correct underdrain, correct elevations, and no compaction of the infiltration surface. Those four things determine whether the facility passes and whether it functions.
Who handles the water quality plan?
Your civil engineer prepares it. We build it and we flag conflicts between the plan and what is constructible before the trench opens.
What about the maintenance obligation after construction?
We provide the as-built and operations information the agency requires for acceptance. Ongoing maintenance is the property owner's obligation and is generally recorded against the property, so it is worth understanding what you are accepting before the facility is designed.
Get a bid on storm drain and drainage
Send us the plans, the specification, and the schedule you are working to. We will tell you whether we are the right contractor for it and what it will cost.
Send us the project
Tell us the site, the scope, and the deadline. Initial consultations carry no fee and no obligation.