Archives: Case Studies

STORMCAPTURE® SYSTEM

Delivers for UPS During Hub Expansion

Lexington, Kentucky

United Parcel Service (UPS) needed a stormwater detention system capable of handling over 400,000 cubic feet of rainwater runoff from their recent hub expansion in Lexington, Kentucky. After engaging general contractor Louisville Paving and engineering firm Luckett & Farley, the company ultimately selected the revolutionary StormCapture® system from Oldcastle Infrastructure.

The immense size of the site, sheer volume of stormwater runoff, deep backfill requirements and tight timeframe necessitated the system cover three separate sites. The first site measured approximately 200’x88’ with a storage capacity of 99,899 cubic feet using one-piece, 6’ StormCapture modules connected by link slabs. The second and largest site covered about 200’x160’ with a storage capacity of 244,574 cubic feet using larger two-piece, 8’ StormCapture modules also joined by link slabs. The third and smallest site measured around 80’x160’ with a storage capacity of 70,943 cubic feet also using larger two-piece, 8’ StormCapture modules attached by link slabs.

In total, the project included 390 precast concrete StormCapture modules and 247 link slabs, plus risers and castings for each system, all supplied by the local Oldcastle plants in Lexington, Kentucky and Lebanon, Tennessee. Incorporating link slabs into the design allowed for a significant reduction in the overall number of StormCapture modules and associated costs, while still meeting the project’s massive stormwater management requirements.

StormCapture is the featured solution offered by Oldcastle Infrastructure for capturing and managing stormwater runoff. It maximizes developable land by allowing the full complement of stormwater management solutions to be placed efficiently and easily under parking lots and roadways with very little cover, in both traffic-rated and nontraffic applications.

The StormCapture precast concrete system is designed and engineered for superior performance. Its modular nature provides countless configurations for site-specific layouts while simplifying the design process and accelerating construction. Whether your site needs a simple detention system to prevent storm drain overloading, a groundwater recharge system for Low-Impact Development (LID), a stormwater treatment system to improve water quality, or a complete stormwater harvesting system, StormCapture will provide your ideal solution.

www.oldcastleinfrastructure.com

Download Full Press Release

STORMCAPTURE® SYSTEM

A Homerun for Atlanta Braves’ New Stadium

Atlanta, Georgia

SunTrust Park Project Partners

Lead Engineer: Kimley-Horn
Infrastructure: Plateau Excavation, Inc.
Construction Management: American Builders

Engineering Georgia magazine recently highlighted Oldcastle Infrastructure’s underground rainwater detention system at the Atlanta Braves’ new SunTrust Park stadium, scheduled to open this spring 2017.

The detention system includes two distinct sites – East Deck Lower, representing 88,056 cubic feet, and East Deck Upper, representing 96,992 cubic feet. While those sites may seem expansive, the height of cover, compactness of space and need for a 40% smaller footprint made other conventional detention systems impractical, and a cast-in-place system would have added more than six weeks to the project timeline.

The Oldcastle Infrastructure team – led by Julie Bertils, Southeast Territory Manager – believed that Oldcastle’s proprietary StormCapture® system would be the ideal solution. Offering up to 1,260 cubic feet of storage per module, the system will retain rainwater runoff from the site for 24 hours, before slowly releasing it into the downstream stormwater system. The StormCapture system will temporarily store runoff from all perimeter drives and parking areas.

Requiring only two inches of leveling sand under each module helped make StormCapture the perfect solution. It also made the most sense given the tight timeframe, budget and scope of the project.

A proven time-saver, the placement of a StormCapture module typically only takes about 15 minutes. The East Deck Upper site required placement of 78 modules, and East Deck Lower site required 65 modules. Installation of both sites took five days each – the first in February 2016, with the latter following in March 2016.

Bertils says the StormCapture system goes “hand-in-hand with water quality, and given their lifecycle cost, are extremely cost-effective. Made of concrete, they are built to last with a service life of 100 years. They are great for maintenance, with access points at the top – offering the ability to walk around inside.”

Of course, the project was not without its challenges, the largest of which was getting Georgia Power to move one line that powered everything in the stadium. Electricity had to be turned off for 30 minutes to get one of the modules set, meaning all other construction activities were temporarily put on hold – another excellent testament.

Although Oldcastle Infrastructure has been actively designing and constructing below-grade detention systems for more than 20 years, Bertils credits the relationships the company has built with the landing of this project. Project partner Plateau Excavation initially installed StormCapture modules onsite for a cistern under the dugout in 2015. The company then recommended the StormCapture system for the East parking area detention system in 2016.

“To have an edge for higher profile projects, it’s important to already be a resource to other firms,” said Bertils. “It all begins with seeking ways to save owners time and money, and they’ll become advocates for you too. We offer modular bioretention, tree box filters, and the PermeCapture™ system – which is a unique product blending permeable pavers with our StormCapture modules. At Oldcastle, we are constantly developing innovative new solutions.”

John Osterland, Senior Project Manager at Plateau Excavation, agrees. “It was a seamless process to install the StormCapture modules at the site. Given the placement of modules in 15-minute increments, this was an extremely efficient project. In addition to the chance to partner with the team at Oldcastle Infrastructure, we’ve been granted the opportunity to work with some of the best engineering firms in Georgia and the United States. Because of the scope, complexity and high-profile nature of this project, SunTrust Park is the job of a lifetime for us.”

www.oldcastleinfrastructure.com

STORMCAPTURE® STORMWATER INFILTRATION SYSTEM

Provides Relief to Overburdened Infrastructure in Grays Ferry Neighborhood

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Owner: City of Philadelphia
Contractor: C. Abbonizio Contractor’s, Inc.
Consulting Engineer: Hatch Mott McDonald
Manufacturing Plant: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Telford, PA

The Gray’s Ferry area is an old neighborhood, rich in history. Loosely defined by Gray’s Ferry Avenue on the north, Vare Avenue on the south, as far east as 25th Street, and running west to the Schuylkill River, the area is close to an important crossing of the Schuylkill River near downtown Philadelphia.

In the 18th century, Gray’s Ferry was the southern most of three ferries that crossed the Schuylkill River to Philadelphia. While the ferry originally belonged to Benjamin Chambers, by 1747, George Gray had taken over ferry operations. The Gray’s Ferry Bridge and several other rail lines now span the Schuylkill River.

The neighborhood was once the site of the Schuylkill Arsenal which was built in 1800 to function as a quartermaster, providing the U.S. military with much-needed supplies. The arsenal made clothing and flags for the military for the next 150 years as the third federal facility in the young nation. Its most famous task was outfitting the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

Now, because of aging infrastructure unequipped to handle excessive amounts of stormwater, during heavy rain events the drainage system becomes overloaded, flooding neighborhood streets. As part of the Philadelphia Water Department’s (PWD) ongoing efforts to alleviate pressure on the existing system, they enlisted the firm of Hatch Mott McDonald to find a solution to the recurring problem.

The final plan involved building an infiltration system that would collect stormwater runoff from nearby streets, then allow for controlled release into the ground to replenish local aquifers. The infiltration system was placed inside a city park, directly underneath a baseball field, so it had to meet the treatable flow rates as well as local regulatory requirements.

C. Abbonizio Contractor’s Inc. was hired to complete the job. But prior to installation, Peter Abbonizio and Joe Winzinger, both with C. Abbonizio, and Michael Creeden with Oldcastle Infrastructure, had a pre-construction meeting with PWD to discuss using the StormCapture system as an alternate solution over the one specified on the plans. PWD had never used the StormCapture system and was unfamiliar with it, but because of the cost savings and Oldcastle’s Telford plant’s working relationship with C. Abbonizio, the city ultimately selected the StormCapture system. The final approved system is capable of detaining 217,978 cu. ft. (1,630,589 gallons) of stormwater runoff.

Production of the StormCapture modules started in March 2016, and total installation took two weeks. The project consisted of 141 8-foot tall StormCapture modules and 81 link slabs, which reduced the number of modules needed as well as the overall cost for the project. There were two additional modules included on the project to allow the placement of access manholes outside of the baseball playing field, which were located directly above the infiltration system.

The modules were offloaded from the trucks and installed by crane. Due to the size of the project, the crane had to be moved frequently. Since the project was inside the city of Philadelphia, crews were limited to roughly 20 trucks per day. There was a very tight timeline to adhere to as the PWD would only allow the contractor to apply grass seed to the completed project within certain dates and they needed to make sure they met those dates, which they did.

Michael Creeden, Territory Manager for Oldcastle’s Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions remarked, “This project is a perfect example of the direction of Infrastructure Management, especially in more urban areas. The City of Philadelphia saw an opportunity to eliminate a flooding problem while maintaining the city’s green space. In the end, no one would ever know that we can store over a million gallons of water just inside of the park, right below the baseball field.”

METRO LIGHT RAIL

Gets On-Board with Storm Water Harvesting Solution

Santa Monica, CA

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Lead Designer: Maintenance Design Group, Pasadena, CA
Civil Designer: W2 Design, Inc., Pasadena, CA
General Contractors: Kiewit Building Group, Inc., Santa Monica, CA
Installing Contractor: Murray Company, Newbury Park, CA
System Manufacturer: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Fontana, CA

California’s struggle with drought has emphasized the need for sustainable water use; an issue that transcends its borders. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that at some point over the past decade, nearly half of the U.S. has been in some form of severe drought.

Rainwater or storm water harvesting is one approach to meet the challenge. Case in point is the construction of the Expo Rail Operations & Maintenance Facility in Santa Monica, California for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (METRO). While it meets operational demands for the region’s increased transportation needs, it also creates impermeable surfaces that require innovative storm water management approaches.

Located on 8.3 acres, the new Operations & Maintenance Facility complex includes a 75,000-square foot main building, a 9,500-square foot secondary structure, a 6,000-square foot maintenance building with an automated vehicle washer that includes a reverse osmosis rinsing machine with a 100% water reclamation system, a 4,500-square foot servicing platform, a paved roadway and two adjacent parking lots.

THE CHALLENGE

Landscape irrigation, vehicle washing and other water needs required an estimated 5,500 gallons per day at the new facility. Focusing on “green” building and energy efficiency, METRO officials sought a Low Impact Development (LID) design with zero storm water runoff. Poor soil conditions precluded soil infiltration to replenish aquifers. As a result, the best option was a storm water harvesting system for non-potable uses to reduce reliance on city water.

THE SOLUTION

Oldcastle Infrastructure assembled a team to provide the total storm water management system including a 400,000 gallon StormCapture cistern, an upstream pretreatment unit, and a downstream storm water harvesting system from Water Harvesting Solutions (WAHASO). The Murray Company installed the pretreatment and StormCapture systems during the spring of 2014. The harvesting equipment was later installed in August 2014. The facility finally became operational in May 2015.

The solution leverages across-the-board efficiencies in water use by reducing the impact on the municipal water supply, land footprint, system maintenance time and budgetary concerns. “Oldcastle has a diverse portfolio of products that afforded the project economies of scale and met the required 50-year design life,” notes Patrick Wong, W2 Design president and senior project manager.

The 400,000-gallon StormCapture system – occupying a small footprint under the parking lot due to large storage capacity per square foot of area – utilizes 29 StormCapture precast concrete modules measuring 12-feet high x 7-feet wide x 15-feet long. One unique aspect of the project: one module in the layout is deeper than the others and houses an integrated pump station to supply water for the harvesting system.

“Our standard modules for the project are 12-feet deep. We supplied one 7-foot x 15-foot module which is 13-feet deep. It is used to completely drain down the system and allow full utilization of the entire 400,000 gallons of storage capacity,” notes Jason Herrman, engineering manager for Oldcastle Infrastructure.

Other components included nine precast concrete link slabs measuring 9-feet wide x 17-feet long that were used at interior locations instead of full modules, and five standard rings up-to-grade with cast-iron lids (manholes) located at ground level for maintenance access. The system also has a 40- mil HDPE liner, with geotextile fabric.

Storm water runs from the rooftop downspout leaders and impermeable ground surfaces into the onsite storm drain system. The baffle box screening and hydrodynamic separation is designed to effectively remove sediments, Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and hydrocarbons. Trash and debris, organics and gross solids collect in a raised screening basket, where pollutants dry out between storm events.

Pretreated storm water flows into the StormCapture system’s concrete cistern modules, temporarily storing it for harvesting purposes. Water from the cistern exits into the concrete pump station module which also serves as an internal storm system overflow bypass should the cistern be filled to capacity during an extreme rain event.

In response to increased non-potable water demand, a drop in the system pressure signals the pump station’s main pressurization submersible pumps – duplex variable frequency drive pumps providing 70 GPM at 67 PSI – to begin operating to meet the demand. The pumps cycle back and forth to equalize wear. Should one pump fail, the second pump can meet demand.

The pumps direct storm water up through the WAHASO harvesting equipment package located in an above-ground enclosure. In the first step, a mechanical filter removes particulates down to 50 microns. In the second phase, a bag filter removes remaining particulates down to 5 microns. Water is then sanitized with ultraviolet light rated to handle 70 GPM to kill harmful bacteria or pathogens, ensuring safe water for public exposure during irrigation and vehicle washing.

“We are able to capture all of their runoff in this one underground system, allowing them to keep their parking lot intact and provide the space they need, as well as the desired sustainable benefits of harvesting water. In addition, the 400,000 gallon cistern was leak tested to confirm water tightness after installation,” Hermann points out. “It passed the test.“

The harvested water will be used for irrigation of facility landscaping and for train washing. The extensive train wash system features both manual and automated wash stations with reverse osmosis and water reclamation, and has a capacity of six rail cars at once. “Out of 10 gallons of water, only two are ‘wasted’ through evaporation or splashing onsite. The water harvesting system is designed to capture close to 50% of the annual rainfall typical to the area, which historically is dry in mid-summer,” notes Wong.

“California gets seasonal rains but the cistern is large enough for us to harvest retained water over a period of months to maximize the system’s value,” says John Bauer, WAHASO president. A municipal water bypass valve automatically opens when water in the pump station and StormCapture cistern drops below a pre-set level. WAHASO’s WCS100 control system logs and reports the amount of water available in the cistern, how much is captured for harvesting purposes, and the amount of municipal water demanded by the system.

WAHASO also integrates OptiRTC technology from GeoSyntec into its storm water harvesting systems, which uses predictive modeling to actively determine storm water detention requirements and release only as much stored water as necessary to meet capacity requirements for each forthcoming storm event. OptiRTC monitors local weather forecasts and onsite device inputs to anticipate storm flows to detention within 24 hours of occurrence. It lowers cistern storage levels ahead of the precipitation event in proportion to the expected storm volume, and closes the outlet valve during storm events to capture and retain water for harvesting.

“Without the OptiRTC capability of actively managing the cistern level, we would have been required to meter out all detained water over a short period of time, minimizing any real value of the harvesting system,” explained Bauer. All systems designed by WAHASO achieve NSF/ANSI 350 standards for water reuse treatment systems, which defines acceptable water quality for surface irrigation, toilet flushing, cooling tower make-up and other nonpotable uses.

GOING FORWARD

The system was designed to minimize maintenance by onsite personnel. Sediment and other debris captured by the pre-filter must be periodically evacuated to keep the cistern free of sediment and organic matter, especially first-flush debris after major rain events. In the filtration skid, bag filters are typically changed every four to eight weeks and the UV bulbs are replaced ,every 10,000 hours, which equates to a year of continuous use.

“The storm water management techniques are set to contribute from one to four points toward a LEED gold rating,” says Renee Azerbegi, president and project manager for Ambient Energy, a consultant engaged by Maintenance Design Group for LEED project facilitation.

“Because of the drought, water conservation issues are being significantly heightened,” notes Wong. “Technology for pre-treatment, post-treatment and storage is available today. Storm water treatment and management is certainly here to stay.”

ULTRA-GREEN, INNER-CITY DEVELOPMENT

Takes Root in Tampa Thanks to StormCapture® System

Tampa, Florida

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Owner: Tampa Bay Housing Authority
Engineer: Cardno TBE
General Contractor: Malphus and Sons, Inc.
Project Manager: ZMG Construction
Precastor: Oldcastle Infrastructure
Manufacturing Facility: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Orlando

To help create a sustainable, environmentally friendly community, Tampa Bay Housing Authority turned to a unique, solar powered stormwater harvesting system for their new Ultra-Green Inner-City Development known as “Encore Tampa” in Florida. The elite stormwater management system, located under the new community park, controls and harvests stormwater runoff to irrigate the new open space park. The $450 million development includes 28-acres of sustainable, mixed-use properties that are all designed to create an environmentally sensitive ecosystem that meets current residents’ needs while preserving resources for future generations.

“One of the coolest features that we have done from a sustainability perspective. I just don’t think anything can top the stormwater vault. This is one of the most unique stormwater management systems in the state because of its size – 18,000 square feet of vault which accommodates 33,000 cubic feet of stormwater”, said Marc Marlano, Assistant Director of Site Development, Cardno TBE, in a YouTube video featured on the ENCORE site. “If they had used a conventional stormwater system, they would have lost three developable sites. It is by far one of the slickest stormwater harvesting features in the state. There is no question about it. It’s just not done at this scale.”

CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGE

Oldcastle Infrastructure designed and provided the modular underground retention system for the new stormwater management system, engineered by Clearwater-based Cardno TBE to store, treat and harvest stormwater runoff on the 28-acre site. The precast concrete StormCapture retention system controls the volume and discharge rate of stormwater runoff. The engineered design maximizes storage volume while minimizing the project’s footprint and cost. Furthermore, the innovative design allowed for a quick and efficient installation.

PRECAST SOLUTION

The 18,000-square foot stormwater harvesting system includes 146 StormCapture modules that can hold up to 33,000 cubic feet of water before recycling it for irrigation use, two nutrient-separating baffle boxes with adjacent sediment chambers for pre-treatment, and irrigation equipment. All surface stormwater runoff is collected from the site, piped into the nutrient-separating baffle boxes and sediment chambers, and stored in the StormCapture modules for irrigating the open space.control system – with a long term design focused on accessibility for inspection and maintenance. System owners will be required to certify proper operation, as well as annual inspection and maintenance of the system as per local building permits.

SCOPE OF WORK

Complete manufacture and installation of a new stormwater management system, including:

146 10-foot tall StormCapture modules
Perimeter walls for the sand filter assembly
Precast ramp assembly into the sand filter
Two nutrient-separating vaults
Two sedimentation vaults

Oldcastle Infrastructure also supplied precast perimeter walls for the sand filter assembly, precast ramp assembly for equipment access into the sand filter, as well as sanitary manholes and inlets. Oldcastle also supplied 120,000-square feet of Belgard pavers for intricate hardscape and permeable walkways for the main thoroughfare to reduce the heat-island effect and aid in stormwater management.

KEY POINTS

StormCapture modules for detention and harvesting
Treatment-train system for pretreatment and irrigation
Maintenance modules for long-term service and maintenance
Impermeable membrane for watertight system
15,000-square foot park on top of StormCapture system
oldcastleinfrastructure.com

CITY OF CLERMONT

Disses Pollutants in Disston Avenue Drainage Basin

Orlando, Florida

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Owner: City of Clermont, Florida
Engineer: BESH Engineering Consultants
General Contractor: Allstate Paving, Inc.
Precastor: Oldcastle Infrastructure
Manufacturing Facility: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Orlando
Start Date: Mid-January 2012
Completion Date: April 2012

The City of Clermont and Lake County Water Authority collaborated on a stormwater management project to capture and treat stormwater from the Disston Avenue drainage basin before it enters Lake Minnehaha. The project reduces pollutant loadings and improves water quality in Lake Minnehaha, while also providing an element of flood control.

The project is a treatment-train system that includes precast concrete baffle boxes for pre-treatment and StormCapture underground concrete retention modules. The baffle boxes remove sediments as well as floatables such as trash, leaves and grass to prevent them from entering the storage system and plugging the exfiltration surface. The StormCapture units capture and retain the stormwater, before slowly allowing it to percolate through the sandy soil under the open-bottom modules to remove unwanted nutrients before providing groundwater recharge.

PRECAST SOLUTION

Oldcastle Infrastructure’s scope of work entailed designing three separate drainage systems for the project. Each system included an upstream baffle box for initial treatment of the stormwater runoff before entering a series of StormCapture modules for detention and exfiltration into the ground. For the Disston Avenue project, the StormCapture modules were 5-feet tall open-bottom modules with internal conveyance passageways to allow stormwater to freely flow amongst all units.

INSTALLATION

The three systems were installed underground, down the middle of Disston Avenue, a heavily traveled residential street in Orlando, Florida. Trench boxes were used to support the sides of the excavation while the precast concrete baffle boxes and StormCapture modules were installed using an excavator. Each of the three systems had to be installed individually with the roadway re-opened to local traffic between installation of each system.

SCOPE OF WORK

Oldcastle Infrastructure provided structural design and engineering drawings for the entire treatment-train system. Precast concrete and other products provided included:

Six each modified curb inlets
One each 5-foot diameter manhole
Three each 4-foot x 14-foot x 7-foot
baffle boxes
Sixty-two each StormCapture modules
Six each maintenance modules
Cast-iron frames and covers for
all structures

COMPLETED SYSTEM

Oldcastle Infrastructure provided all associated structures for the Disston Avenue drainage improvement project. Infrastructure runoff now flows into the storm drainage system through precast concrete curb inlets, before being piped through storm manholes and eventually to the treatment train system consisting of the inline baffle boxes and StormCapture modules. During rain events, stormwater exfiltrates from the modules into the ground to replenish local aquifers.

The baffle boxes are a non-proprietary design which allows for gross solids in the water to be removed through sedimentation and screening in the baffle boxes. Sediment and floatables can then be removed from the baffle boxes through any of the three access openings per box using a standard vacuum truck. By keeping sediments and debris out of the StormCapture modules, system maintenance is confined primarily to the baffle boxes for greater efficiency. This prevents the exfiltration surface under the modules from plugging up, while providing for maximum groundwater recharge as intended with the StormCapture modules. Access manways are also provided into the maintenance StormCapture modules in the event future servicing is required.

The Oldcastle StormCapture system and pre-treatment chambers provide a valuable dual function for Disston Avenue – a groundwater recharge and flood control system – with a long-term design focused on accessibility for inspection and maintenance. System owners will be required to certify proper operation, as well as annual inspection and maintenance of the system as per local building permits.

QUANTICO NATIONAL CEMETERY

Gets U.S.-Made StormCapture® Detention System

Triangle, VA

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Client: W.C. Spratt, Fredericksburg, VA
General Contractor: Leebcor Services LLC, Williamsburg, VA
Precaster: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Fredericksburg, VA
Civil Designer: AMEC Foster Wheeler, Kennesaw, GA

Quantico National Cemetery’s new administration building expansion, just inside the cemetery’s main gate on Joplin Road, includes about 4,500 square feet of office and administrative space and a covered portico of about 2,500 square feet.

For civil designer AMEC Foster Wheeler in Kennesaw, Georgia, key concerns were to control runoff from newly constructed impervious surfaces preventing storm drain overloading as well as other downstream issues such as flooding and erosion, and to achieve this with minimal footprint on the compact project site. AMEC specified the StormCapture® stormwater detention system to manage the post-construction rainwater runoff.

Oldcastle Infrastructure provided the StormCapture system as the ideal solution for the underground stormwater detention system at the new administration building site at Quantico National Cemetery. Quantico National Cemetery is a military cemetery for veterans of the United States Armed Forces and was established in 1983 adjacent to the Marine Corps Base Quantico. Construction Challenge The StormCapture detention system was selected because of its unique ability to handle large volumes of water in a restricted footprint as well as its traffic-loading capabilities. In addition, the owners wanted a precast concrete system due to its durability and longevity.

PRECAST SOLUTION

The precast concrete stormwater detention structure included (16) sixteen 7-foot x 15-foot x 7-foot tall modules and an integrated outlet control structure. The underground, high-strength structural concrete storage modules, which were installed in the early fall of 2013, provided 12,336 cubic feet of underground detention, and the outlet control structure provided controlled discharge and overflow capabilities. The StormCapture modules incorporated several inlet pipes, as well as four manway access points to allow maintenance access into the stormwater management system. An impermeable, polyethylene membrane was then used to wrap the entire StormCapture system.

WORLD’S LARGEST STORMCAPTURE® UNDERGROUND DETENTION SYSTEM

Coming to Southern California

Nashville, Tennessee

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Site Owner: LS-OC Portola LLCL
General Contractor: Landsea Holding Corporation
Engineer: Hunsaker & Associates
Manufacturing Plant: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Perris, CA

Bigger is better! Oldcastle Infrastructure is collaborating with site owner LSOC Portola LLCL, general contractor Landsea Holding Corporation and engineering firm Hunsaker & Associates to create one of the largest and deepest StormCapture® rainwater detention systems designed to date.

The massive structure includes a network of individual StormCapture modules arranged to create a vast underground precast concrete stormwater management system. The pre-engineered components allow for site-specific configurations while providing tremendous stormwater storage capacity in a smaller footprint.

Portola Center is a 195-acre community development, divided by Glenn Ranch Road into “Portola North” and “Portola South” in Lake Forest, California. The 95.5-acre Portola Center South community features both new single-family homes and mixed-use buildings. The community also features a 10,000-square-foot ground floor commercial space as well as a five-acre public community park and perimeter trails.

The magnitude of this project and its increased impermeable areas made managing hydromodication (stormwater runoff) a top priority. Infrastructure is managed throughout the project through ten separate “Basins”, providing a total detention storage volume of 820,886 cubic feet (18.85 acre-feet). Basin No. 5, the first StormCapture detention system installed at Portola Center South, was designed to store 198,152 cubic feet (4.55 acre-feet) of stormwater, which can detain up to a 10-year storm event with an internal orifice designed to slowly discharge the water volume to a downstream biofiltration system.

The Basin No. 5 StormCapture system, manufactured at the Oldcastle Infrastructure plant in Perris, California, has an inside height of 14 feet and was designed to withstand 16-feet of backfill over the entire system. The system was fully encased with an impermeable geotextile liner. Along with the StormCapture detention system, Oldcastle Infrastructure plants in Southern California also manufactured and delivered large biofiltration units to address the water quality requirements for the project.

Shelby Hull, Director of Oldcastle Infrastructure for the Southwest Region stated, “Oldcastle Infrastructure is the perfect design partner for all stormwater needs, big and small. Our team of stormwater experts, design engineers and national manufacturing capabilities make Oldcastle Infrastructure the clear choice for developing custom solutions to meet the specific regulatory needs for projects like this. Unlike other companies that only design systems and then use third-party manufacturing, Oldcastle Infrastructure maintains control and ensures quality throughout the design, manufacturing, installation and life of the system.”

STORMCAPTURE® UNDERGROUND DETENTION SYSTEM IS MUSIC TO NASHVILLE’S EARS

Nashville, Tennessee

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Owner: Stonehenge DCM
Civil Engineer: Civil Site
General Contractor: Cambridge Builders
Precastor: Oldcastle Infrastructure
Manufacturing Facility: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Lebanon

The Pine Street Flats project in “The Gulch” section of old Nashville included construction of a new 296-unit apartment building and an adjacent parking garage that was to be sandwiched between the Velocity retail space and Icon, a mixed-use property.

Due to a relatively small amount of open space on the site, an underground stormwater management system was designed to manage post-construction stormwater runoff. The system, manufactured by Oldcastle Infrastructure, included a collection system consisting of multiple drainage structures, reinforced concrete pipe (RCP), as well as a StormCapture detention system.

CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGE

The original design included an RCP detention system to be installed under the parking garage. Once it became apparent that the footprint of the RCP system would interfere with footings for the parking garage, the StormCapture system was selected to improve storage efficiency with a reduced overall footprint.

PRECAST SOLUTION

In collaboration with Cambridge Builders, Oldcastle Infrastructure provided the design and final submittals for the StormCapture system to integrate with the proposed stormwater drainage system. Precast concrete components supplied by Oldcastle for the project included: 10 drainage structures, 516 linear feet of 15-inch RCP, 344 linear feet of 24-inch RCP, as well as 44 6’ x 12’ x 5’ StormCapture modules to provide 15,800 cubic feet of underground stormwater detention.

The drainage structures and pipe were installed to transport stormwater from the rooftop and surface collection areas to the StormCapture detention system, and then to the downstream stormwater drainage system.

INSTALLATION

Installation of the StormCapture system consisted of 44 two-piece, clamshell-style modules configured in four rows of 11 modules. An impermeable, polyethylene membrane was used to wrap the entire StormCapture system to provide a watertight, self-contained unit.

STORMCAPTURE® DETENTION SYSTEM COMES TO THE RESCUE

at Nashville Fire Station

Nashville, Tennessee

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Client: City of Salisbury, MD
Project Coordinator: Bill Sterling, Dept. of Public Works.
Utility Contractor: Drainage Protection Systems (DPS), a Division of Oldcastle

In order to detain stormwater runoff at Metro Fire Station #21, the City of Nashville and Davidson County elected to remove an above ground detention pond and construct a new underground stormwater detention system to regain valuable land for a parking lot during renovation of the facility.

Oldcastle Infrastructure provided the stormwater detention system for the reconstructed fire station. The detention system was a key component of the overall renovation project of the 21,000-square foot facility. Thanks in part to the stormwater retention system, the new fire station achieved LEED® silver certification.

CONSTRUCTION CHALLENGE

The first design of the new stormwater detention system specified 36- inch corrugated metal pipe, but concerns regarding fire truck traffic loading on the system resulted in a change to 36-inch reinforced concrete pipe. This in turn ultimately could not be used either as it would not fit in the required footprint under the facility’s driveway.

In the final design, a StormCapture underground stormwater management system was chosen and subsequently constructed under the entrance road since it reduced the detention system width and overall footprint by more than 40%, and easily fit under the fire station roadway.

PRECAST SOLUTION

In total, 16 StormCapture modules measuring 3-feet tall were installed offering 3,700 cubic feet of stormwater storage. The 3-foot tall design was desirable due to the presence of shallow bedrock beneath the site. A low-profile, high-capacity system was needed in order to minimize excavation costs and to fit within the tight site footprint.

In addition to the StormCapture system, Oldcastle Infrastructure also provided five catch basins, 15-inch and 18-inch reinforced concrete pipe, and three sanitary manholes. The Oldcastle plant in nearby Lebanon, Tennessee manufactured the precast concrete components.

INSTALLATION

Installed in a single day, the StormCapture detention system was wrapped with a 60-mil polyethylene membrane to provide a watertight system. Excavation and hole prep were both completed the day before the installation, with 6-inches of #57 stone and 2-inches of leveling sand placed at the bottom of the excavation. A layer of filter fabric was installed, then 60-mil membrane, followed by another protective layer of filter fabric.

The StormCapture modules were set on top of the final filter fabric layer. Each module was set in less than 15 minutes, providing an opportunity for the contractor to place and backfill the entire system in a single day, offering a significant time savings over the originally planned pipe system.

The system is designed so that stormwater flows into the catch basins, then into the StormCapture modules. In addition, a grated inlet provides direct water entry from the parking lot, roadway and roof drains. Water then slowly discharges from the system into downstream storm drains.

The StormCapture standard design is HS-20-44 for full truck load plus impact, which allowed the system to have earth cover down to 6-inches in some places with minimal base stone and paving over the top. One of the modules had a thicker top slab (14-inches in total) along with a 4-inch tall collar at one corner to support cast-iron frames and grates for direct entry of roadway water into the StormCapture system. The direct water entry also reduced requirements for additional onsite drainage infrastructure.

SAVINGS ON THE HORIZON

for StormCapture® System at Horizon Bay

Tampa, Florida

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Engineer: Fuxan Engineering, Inc.
Contractor: Ripa & Associates
Precastor: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Orlando

Horizon Bay is a five-story, 30,000-square foot shared living facility in Tampa, Florida. Once engineering plans and permitting were completed, site work provisions called for five inlet structures to capture stormwater and redirect it to 6,572-cubic feet of stormwater detention under the parking area at the northeast corner of the property. Due to limited available space, underground detention was the only practical choice according to the design engineer Fuxan Engineering of Odessa, Florida. An overflow pipe led to storm sewers, but most of the stormwater would be infiltrated back into the ground, a common Low-Impact Development (LID) practice in Florida to help recharge the local aquifer. Although a plastic chamber system was originally specified for the underground detention system, Oldcastle Infrastructure proposed the stronger StormCapture precast concrete system instead.

A BETTER SOLUTION

There were several key factors that influenced the owner to ultimately select the StormCapture system. First and foremost was the project’s location – a very dense area of Old Tampa. The proposed building would occupy most of the developed site, making open space and parking hard to come by, and the engineer and owner were both looking for ways to increase “green” space.

Another space-related concern was that all available area was going to be needed for construction traffic and to be used as a lay-down area during the year-long construction. Since the detention system was going to be needed to manage stormwater runoff during construction, it needed to be installed during the first phase of construction. The StormCapture system is ideally suited for this type of application since its stand-alone, traffic-bearing design does not rely on final paving for structural integrity. Conversely, due to structural concerns, the typical footprint of an underground plastic system is usually off-limits during construction until the final base and paving are completed. Since the StormCapture modules are constructed of high-strength precast concrete, their ability to support traffic allowed a 50% reduction in thickness of base rock required between the pavement and modules, as well as a 20% reduction under the modules, as compared to the originally planned plastic chambers.

Accessibility for long-term maintenance, as well as the following points, factored into the final decision to use the StormCapture system:

Smaller footprint with more storage capacity
No inspection ports to break or pieces to replace during construction
Modular design allowed flexible, bestfit configuration to provide for more landscaped space
Much more rapid installation due to elimination of select backfill requirements, as well as reduced number and square foot of modules to get same storage capacity
Elimination of the five inlet structures originally required with the plastic chambers since the StormCapture modules allow direct entrance of stormwater runoff through three grates

THE FINAL SOLUTION

The completed system design included 37 StormCapture modules in total. Each module was constructed of precast reinforced concrete with interior dimensions measuring 6’ wide x 12’ long x 2.5’ tall, with open bottoms for infiltration. Modules were installed on a setting bed of 7-inches of clean #57 stone.

Four of the modules incorporated standard inlet grates to allow direct entry of runoff from the parking lot into the system. This eliminated the need for the four separate inlet structures originally designed into the project. A precast splash pad was installed below each inlet grate to prevent scour of the bedding material. In addition, the inlet grates could be used for direct access to the modules for inspection and cleaning, as needed. Each module also had large conveyance windows into adjacent modules to allow flow equalization, as well as access for maintenance.

CONSTRUCTION & RESULTS

Construction of the site began in October 2009. After one day for excavation and site preparation, which included placement of the 7-inch stone layer, the 37 modules were installed over the course of one-and-a-half days. All top and perimeter joints between modules received a layer of 3/4 inch preformed sealant, as well as 8-inch wide fabric joint wrap.

After backfilling, a lime rock base was placed over the modules that served as the roadway surface during construction. After construction was completed, the lime rock base was re-graded, and then asphalt was installed. The entire facility was completed in the fall of 2010 and opened for residents in early 2011.

This was the first project where Ripa & Associates used the StormCapture module system. According to their project managers, the modules were key in providing access to a very limited site, and did not require ongoing maintenance or cleanout during construction. The initial savings experienced from the reduction of aggregates in the foundation, backfill and under the pavement are measurable, tangible costs. Ripa believes that coupling those savings with the experience they gained in the ease and speed of installation and lack of construction maintenance will make them even more competitive on future projects.

STORMCAPTURE® SYSTEM

Helps Grow “Green” Affordable Housing at Forest House

Bronx, New York

As part of New York City’s new housing marketplace plan to provide affordable housing to 500,000 low-income residents, Oldcastle Infrastructure joined Blue Sea Development in building the new Forest House apartments. The development is part of the largest municipal housing plan in the nation.

Forest House is a “green” energy-saving precast concrete building, containing 124 affordable units only available to households making 60% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI). The 109,000-square foot building also contains landscaped open space, underground parking and a unique commercial rooftop greenhouse that will yield up to 100,000 pounds of fresh produce annually to be distributed to residents and local supermarkets.

PRECAST SOLUTION

Oldcastle Infrastructure, relying on its expertise in precast concrete structures, manufactured 136 precast concrete hollow-core planks for the floors and roof, which were all specially designed to handle the tremendous load of a rooftop greenhouse. Another 70,000-square feet of precast concrete wall panels were supplied for the energy efficient exterior of the eight-story Forest House building. The exterior walls were cast with a sandblast-type finish with colored concrete to provide a visually appealing look.

In addition to the housing structure, Oldcastle Infrastructure manufactured and installed a StormCapture water harvesting system. The system included special StormCapture retention modules that hold about 16,000 gallons of captured stormwater each, and an equipment package that treats the captured water, making it available for irrigation to the rooftop hydroponic greenhouse This is the fifth precast concrete building the developer Blue Sea Development and Oldcastle Infrastructure have collaborated on over the past 10 years. Oldcastle Infrastructure worked closely with Blue Sea and ABS Architects, the project architect, during the design phase to develop a cost-effective solution that met all of the project’s many requirements.

The development team consisted of Blue Sea Development, Blue Sea Construction, ABS Architects and T.Y. Lyn International Group, a global engineering firm. The team was selected due to its storied history of affordable public housing that is both attractive and sustainable.

LUXURY TOWNHOME DEVELOPMENT

Shines Thanks to StormCapture® Rainwater Detention System

Charlotte, North Carolina

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

General Contractor: Heard Ratzlaff Construction, Charlotte, North Carolina
Contractor: Siteworks LLC, Charlotte, North Carolina
Engineer: OEG
Developer: Wendy Field & T.H. Dorsett, Inc.
Site Designer: Osborn Engineering Group, Charlotte, North Carolina
Precastor: Oldcastle Infrastructure

The Cottages at Providence is a new luxury townhome development by Wendy Field Consulting. The site designer Orsborn Engineering Group of Charlotte, North Carolina, needed a combination stormwater detention and sand filter system to control and remove pollutants from post-construction runoff for this very dense urban development.

In order to accomplish this, the site required a 17,000 cubic foot stormwater detention and sand filter system.

PRECAST SOLUTION

Oldcastle Infrastructure supplied the stormwater detention and sand filter system at the new development by incorporating a StormCapture® modular precast concrete vault system.

Osborn incorporated the sand filter and detention chamber into a single stormwater management system using 27 StormCapture modules. The system, installed under the driveway between two rows of townhomes, includes 19 retention modules, six sand filter chambers and two pre-treatment sedimentation modules.

The pre-treatment chambers trap sediment and floatables, while the sand filter uses sand media to filter smaller particles and other pollutants. The detention chamber stores runoff while allowing sufficient time for treatment through the sand filter. Discharge from the system is controlled by an orifice plate at the outlet pipe. The system is designed to meet AASHTO HS-20-44 for traffic loads and has multiple manholes for future maintenance access.

The stormwater management system receives water from onsite storm drains and downspout collection pipes, as well as from a grate directly over the top of one of the pre-treatment modules. Runoff then passes through the StormCapture system and then out to the storm drains.

“The success of this job was due to the pre-construction meetings held by Scott Bovit (Owner) of Siteworks and his team. The owner and engineer were delighted to see the ease of the install and praised the quality of the material supplied”. Scott Polk, Oldcastle Infrastructure

PROJECT DETAILS

Infrastructure Detention and Sand Filter Infrastructure Management System

Oldcastle Infrastructure Product:

19 – 5’ tall StormCapture retention modules
6 – 9’ tall StormCapture sand filter chambers
2 – 9’ tall StormCapture sedimentation modules

DAY 1
The base sections of the sand filter, detention and pre-treatment modules were installed.
DAY 2
The modular nature of the StormCapture system provided the contractor with an opportunity to install all of the internal sand filter components (under drain piping, stone and sand media) very easily while the system was still open.
DAY 3
The tops of the modules were installed and backfilling operations were completed.

STORMCAPTURE® PV SYSTEM SCHOOLS REDMOND ELEMENTARY

on Benefits of Infrastructure Management

Redmond, WA

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Architect: BLRB Architects, Tacoma, WA
Contractor: BNBuilders Construction, Seattle, WA
Precaster: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Auburn, WA
Engineer: AHBL Engineering, Seattle, WA

Protecting nature within our urban environment requires the proper movement and management of stormwater runoff. To do so, communities have a maze of drainage networks, and precast concrete often plays a critical role.

In Redmond, Washington, the Lake Washington School District is utilizing precast concrete panel components to construct two extra-large underground StormCapture PV detention vaults as part of the stormwater conveyance system at the new Redmond Elementary School. Working together, general contractor BNBuilders Construction, BLRB Architects and AHBL Engineering designed the massive underground stormwater vaults while also meeting the regulatory requirements of the Washington State Department of Ecology (WADOE). After review, they concluded that a precast concrete panel vault system would save approximately two-and-a-half months of installation time over a cast-in-place system. The precast solution would also detain stormwater to allow sediment to filter out in accordance with WADOE guidelines.

WADOE issues requirements for how stormwater runoff is treated before being discharged off jobsites. As a developed site with impervious surfaces, the school ensured its stormwater runoff would be as clean as from an undeveloped site. “The measures incorporated – to hold, filter, clean and discharge clean stormwater – were accomplished naturally by way of onsite biofiltration swales that allow the water to be channeled, filtering it naturally,” said the Lake Washington School District Support Services Team.

“Also, the system uses cartridges and mechanically filters the water. The engineering behind the stormwater system is pretty amazing in terms of the invert elevations and how the water level is going to build-up and be metered, then discharged from the site.”

Selected by BNBuilders Construction, Oldcastle Infrastructure of Auburn, Washington designed, engineered, manufactured and then delivered the precast concrete components of the underground detention vaults. Oldcastle Infrastructure Auburn Project Manager Rick Roof remarked, “Using precast provided a variety of benefits including strength, durability, flexibility of design, and it vastly improved the construction schedule, operational efficiencies and overall quality of the detention structures for this project.”

PRECAST SOLUTION

In total, the Auburn plant supplied 44 flat-base slabs, 54 wall panels, 44 top slabs as well as ladders, cast-iron covers and risers for the 44 foot-wide by 178-foot-long North detention vault. The South vault, scheduled to be installed in November, will require 48 flat-base slabs, 40 wall panels, 48 top slabs, plus ladders, cast-iron covers, and two H-20 rated five-foot by 10-foot grates and risers for the 44-foot-wide by 220-foot long vault. The segmented precast stormwater vaults hold approximately 900,000 gallons of rainwater while allowing sediment to settle before being discharged into the storm drain system. Each precast panel was sealed using hydrophobic sealer. As soon as water touches the sealer, it triggers the sealer to spread, harden and cure between the panels so there is no seepage. The construction of the North precast concrete panel vault took six days.

A paved parking lot will eventually cover the detention vaults, so stormwater will be piped into the underground structures. Oldcastle Infrastructure Area Technical Manager Deon Lourens remarked, “These are complicated systems, and it’s great to see what our capabilities are as a company. The benefits of precast include speed, quality and versatility, which saves time and money for onsite contractors.”

“The Oldcastle Infrastructure Auburn plant did an excellent job to make this happen. It is a great looking job! We have completed the North stormwater detention vault, and the South stormwater detention vault will be installed in November 2017,” he added.

WORLD’S LARGEST PERKFILTER® INSTALLATION COMPLETED IN JUST FOUR DAYS

The city of Redmond, Washington needed a regional stormwater treatment facility capable of handling up to 20 CFS (cubic feet per second) or 9,000 gpm (gallons per minute). After contracting with IMCO Construction in Bellingham, Washington and Leidos Engineering in Auburn, Washington, the city settled on the revolutionary PerkFilter® media filtration system from Oldcastle® Infrastructure.

Media filtration products provide stormwater filtration to reduce pollutant loading in runoff from urban developments. Impervious surfaces and other urban and suburban landscapes generate a variety of contaminants that can enter stormwater, polluting downstream receiving waters. PerkFilter media filtration systems feature pre-treatment chambers and replaceable filter cartridges to capture and retain sediment, petroleum hydrocarbons, phosphorus, metals and other target constituents close to the source to reduce the total downstream discharge load.

DESIGN FLEXIBILITY

PerkFilter media filtration solutions are available in multiple configurations, including catch basins, vaults and manholes, allowing the engineer maximum design flexibility. The city of Redmond selected a continuous precast vault design, measuring 16’ high by 214’ long, and including 547 sets of stacked 12” and 18” replaceable PerkFilter cartridges.

Production of the precast concrete vault started in mid-October, 2014 at the Oldcastle plant in nearby Auburn, Washington. Both sizes of stackable PerkFilter cartridges were produced at the Oldcastle facility in Santa Rosa, California, then shipped north to Washington. Onsite assembly in Redmond quickly followed on December 8th and final installation was completed just three short days later on December 11th with the use of a crane to help expedite installation time.

Deon Lourens, Area Technical Manager with Oldcastle Infrastructure, explained that there are several advantages to the PerkFilter system. “Its cartridges have no moving parts and no cartridge hood, allowing for easier maintenance observation. In addition, its design allows for fewer cartridges than alternative models, and the bypass flow underneath the cartridge bay limits reentrainment of pollutants.”

He noted that cartridge lifecycle can range up to three years, depending on the pollutant load. “The cleaner the influent,” he said, “the longer the duration between maintenance cycles.”

REDMOND PARK-AND-RIDE GETS ONBOARD WITH OLDCASTLE STORMWATER TREATMENT TRAIN

Redmond, Washington

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Owner: Sound Transit
General Contractor: Kiewitt Hoffman East Link Constructors, Marshbank Construction, Inc.
Engineer: McMillen Jacobs Associates
Manufacturing Plant: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Auburn, WA

Protecting nature within our urban environment requires the proper management and treatment of stormwater runoff. To do so, most communities have a maze of drainage networks, and precast concrete typically plays a vital role.

In Redmond, the new Overlake Village park-and-ride is getting a 10’ wide by 36’ long by 18’ deep PerkFilter® stormwater treatment system with 65 30” tall cartridges with space for up to 84 additional cartridges.

The system also includes a 12’ diameter Downstream Defender® for trash and debris capture. As designed, the PerkFilter system has a design fl ow rate of 1,428 gpm (3.2 cfs), while the Downstream Defender has a treatment flow rate of 18 cfs.

Located adjacent to the Overlake Village park-and-ride on 152nd Avenue NE will be a new light rail station, with a targeted open date of 2023. The station’s entrance will be along 152nd Avenue NE, just south of SR520. Once completed, the new light rail line will link Overlake Village to Pioneer Square, with the ride taking about 30 minutes. Contemporary in design, the station was devised in accordance with the City of Redmond’s 152nd Avenue
Corridor Study and Overlake Village Neighborhood Plan.

PRECAST SOLUTION

Working together, general contractors Kiewit Hoffman and Marshbank Construction along with McMillen Jacobs Associates designed the deep underground PerkFilter vault while also meeting the regulatory requirements of the Washington State Department of Ecology (WADOE). After review, they concluded that a segmented precast concrete panel vault system would be easier to install with its reduced overall pick weight while also saving installation time over a cast- in-place system. The precast solution with the PerkFilter cartridges would also allow sediment and other pollutants to be removed in accordance with WADOE requirements.

WADOE issues guidelines for how stormwater runoff is treated before being discharged off jobsites. As a developed site with impervious surfaces, the park-and-ride facility ensured its stormwater runoff would be as clean as from an undeveloped site with its new stormwater treatment system.

Oldcastle Infrastructure of Auburn, Washington designed, engineered, manufactured and delivered the precast concrete components of the underground PerkFilter system. Oldcastle Infrastructure Auburn Project Manager Rick Roof remarked that “using precast provided a variety of benefits including strength, durability, flexibility of design, and it vastly improved the construction schedule, operational efficiencies and overall quality of the detention structures for this project.”

In total, Oldcastle Infrastructure supplied the flat-base slabs, wall panels, top slabs, ladders, cast-iron covers and risers for the underground stormwater treatment vault as well as the PerkFilter cartridges and associated installation hardware.

Once operational, the precast concrete PerkFilter vault can treat 1,428 gpm of rainwater before slowly releasing it into the downstream detention system. Each precast panel was sealed using hydrophobic sealer. As soon as water touches the sealer, it triggers the sealer to spread, harden and cure between the panels so there is no seepage.

A parking lot and pedestrian walkway will eventually cover the PerkFilter vault, so stormwater will be piped into the underground structure. According to Oldcastle Infrastructure Area Technical Manager Deon Lourens, “these are complicated systems, and it’s great to see what our capabilities are as a company. The benefits of precast include speed, quality and versatility, which saves time and money for onsite contractors.”

“The Oldcastle Infrastructure Auburn plant did an excellent job to make this project happen,” he added.

October 31, 2018

WICOMICO RIVER CLEANS UP WITH NETTECH™ GROSS POLLUTANT TRAPS

Salisbury, MD

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Client: City of Salisbury, MD
Project Coordinator:
Bill Sterling
Dept. of Public Works.
Utility Contractor:
Drainage Protection Systems
(DPS), a Division of Oldcastle

OLDCASTLE STORMWATER PRODUCTS INSTALLED

24” & 36” Nettech Devices, plus 30 Flogard Plus Catch Basin Insert Filters

The City of Salisbury, located in southeastern Maryland, is the county seat of Wicomico County and is also the largest city in Maryland’s Eastern Shore region. It is the commercial hub of the Delmarva Peninsula and is sometimes called “the Crossroads of Delmarva”. One of the focal points of the downtown area is a riverwalk along the Wicomico River which the city maintains.

When the City of Salisbury decided to make an effort to clean-up the trash and debris flowing into the Wicomico River from the adjacent contributing watershed, they chose Oldcastle Infrastructure’s NetTech™ gross pollutant traps (GPT) and FloGard Plus catch basin insert filters using a community development block grant. In February 2011, Drainage Protection Systems (DPS), a division of Oldcastle, installed a 24” circular GPT, attaching it to an existing 24” stormwater outfall pipe beneath the Division Street Bridge which is adjacent to the city’s riverwalk. Then in September 2011, a 36” circular GPT was installed on a nearby outfall pipe. The NetTech device will capture trash and debris from the outfall and contain the contents until the city’s maintenance crews pickup and dispose of the debris.

Once emptied, the netting device is reattached and the process begins anew. The NetTech, an end-of-pipe treatment device, was selected by the city due to the conspicuous location of the outfalls. Not only is the location highly visible by local residents and adjacent property owners, thereby providing an immediate showcase of the captured debris, it also allows appropriate maintenance accessibility for debris collection and disposal.

One of the most significant, yet unrecognized types of water pollution is stormwater runoff. When it rains, stormwater collects everything in its path, including trash, debris and other pollutants. Eventually, the water reaches streams or rivers, either over land or via storm drains. But unlike sanitary sewers that divert water to treatment plants, storm drains ultimately empty directly into surrounding lakes and rivers without any type of treatment. All of the debris and pollutants that were picked up by the stormwater eventually end up in our nation’s waterways.

The Baltimore shipyard is the U.S. Coast Guard’s active maintenance and repair facility for the Atlantic Fleet. This historic facility has served as regional headquarters, shipyard and depot since 1899. Currently, the shipyard employs over 1,500 personnel to overhaul and recondition ships, from propellers to defensive systems.

INSTALLATION ISSUES

The timing of the tidal-influenced Wicomico River had to be accounted for during installation due to the outfall pipe being partially submerged during high tide. Additionally, the upstream storm sewer system maintained a constant runoff through the pipe network, which had to be temporarily dewatered during the installation sequence.

DPS accomplished this through the use of sandbags and a sump pump in the adjacent upstream manhole, thereby providing for a relatively dry installation environment. Furthermore, access for the installation had to be considered due to the river’s proximity to the outfall. The city provided a boat to assist with the installation along the riverwalk, which was needed in conjunction with DPS’s boom-lift vehicle. Traffic was controlled along the Division Street Bridge during installation by the city, while DPS provided power access through a mobile generator which was necessary for properly securing each NetTech device to the outfall pipe. Total installation time took about four hours per unit.

RESULTS

The two NetTech units had an immediate impact by drastically reducing the amount of trash and debris deposited into the Wicomico River, thereby providing an enhancement to the city’s river beautification project. These installations were the first two completed portions of the city’s overall stormwater master plan. In May 2012, the city contracted with DPS to install 30 FloGard Plus catch basin insert filters within the watershed as well.

Though these are the first NetTech devices to be utilized in the Maryland Eastern Shore region, neighboring communities outside of Salisbury, including Talbot County and the City of Easton, have recently installed several NetTech units as well.

It is of the utmost importance to keep trash and debris out of our nation’s waterways, keeping our water as clean as possible for current and future generations, and Oldcastle Infrastructure is helping city and county agencies accomplish this task, one step at a time.

U.S. COAST GUARD SAFEGUARDS CHESAPEAKE BAY

Environmentally Friendly TerraMod® Planters

Baltimore, Maryland

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Client: United States Coast Guard
Contractors: Skookum Contract Services, Inc.
Manufacturing Plant: Oldcastle Infrastructure, Fredericksburg, VA & Edgewood, MD

On April 21, 2017, Oldcastle Infrastructure co-sponsored an Earth Day educational fair at the U.S. Coast Guard’s shipyard in Baltimore, Maryland. This marked the 47th Earth Day celebration of its kind since 1970.

The Coast Guard hosted the Earth Day fair to help educate the community and reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay from stormwater runoff. As part of the festivities, the Coast Guard purchased three “green” Low-Impact Development (LID) stormwater filtration planters for their campus, thereby protecting the local environment, its members and the community they serve. Planning for the planters began in January 2017, when the Coast Guard approached Oldcastle Infrastructure for ideas on how to treat stormwater runoff on such a tightly packed campus with many acres of impervious hardscape.

After discussions and in support of the Coast Guard’s Earth Day celebration, Oldcastle Infrastructure manufactured and supplied three TerraMod® precast concrete stormwater retention and filtration units. The TerraMod planters allow for the treatment of a larger volume of stormwater runoff in a smaller footprint than traditional rain gardens. These environmentally friendly units remove pollutants via filtration while assisting in the Coast Guard’s compliance with the nt (MDE) to mitigate rainwater pollutants.

Oldcastle Infrastructure’s Edgewood, Maryland and Fredericksburg, Virginia facilities provided two at-grade precast concrete bioretention planters and one above-grade planter designed to capture, retain and filter stormwater runoff. One 4-foot by 24-foot by 6-foot bioretention planter was installed near Parking Lot #20 to collect runoff from nearby streets and parking areas. The runoff was diverted to the retention system by means of a culvert designed by the site contractor.

A second planter measuring 4-foot by 25-foot by 6-foot was placed adjacent to Building #40 for retaining and filtering stormwater from the roof. This process is called “rooftop disconnection” where the stormwater does not actually runoff, but instead is intercepted, thereby decreasing the amount of rainwater pollutants.

Finally, a third above-grade planter measuring 4-foot by 10-foot by 6-foot was installed beside Building #42 in order to handle rooftop runoff which is piped directly to the retention planter. Harvest RGI engineered the planter’s filtration media and volume (stone and soil depths) in accordance with the State of Maryland’s stormwater management specifications. “Harvest RGI is the largest supplier of bioretention soils in Maryland, and is very excited to be involved in this dynamic TerraMod system developed by Oldcastle Infrastructure,” said David Lundberg, Director of Business Development at Harvest RGI. “The bioretention media used on this project is from the MDE Infrastructure Design Manual. While an extremelyrigid specification issued by MDE, Harvest is able to manufacture to meet the needs to better manage stormwater on this project as well as 100’s of thousands of cubic yards of this material used for other projects statewide.”

The shipyard’s Earth Day fair was a remarkable success. The Coast Guard’s environmental industry partner companies and organizations set-up booths and focused on pollution prevention and environmental education. Various volunteers from partner organizations as well as students from Monarch Academy, a local charter school, helped install the TerraMod planters and attended the environmental education presentations on the parade field near the Earth Day cookout.

Chris Gorman, Oldcastle Infrastructure Territory Manager for the Chesapeake Region, gave an informative presentation to the students, volunteers and Coast Guard staff regarding the science and engineering behind the TerraMod units. The students also toured the shipyard, planted shrubs and learned valuable lessons about environmental stewardship.

“Earth Day is a very good opportunity to do something great for the environment. Partnering with the U.S. Coast Guard’s Earth Day Education Fair, providing the TerraMod planters and volunteering was a small gesture towards creating a healthy environment for the future,” said Doug Bruhns, Oldcastle Infrastructure Regional General Manager for the Chesapeake Region. “It’s definitely a group effort. Environmentalists facilitate a lot of things, but we need the participation of others. We need everyone to get involved to make it work, protecting our future and the environment. I would personally like to thank each Oldcastle Infrastructure volnteer and our precast plants for their hard work and dedication to the environment.”

Find out more about Oldcastle Infrastructure TerraMod and Stormwater Management Systems.

Find out more about the Oldcastle Infrastructure TerraMod System.

NEW SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS STADIUM

Scores Big with TerraMod® System

San Francisco, CA

DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION TEAM

Engineer: GHD Engineering, San Francisco, CA
Contractors: Ghilotti Construction (1st Phase), Turner-Devcon (2nd Phase), Santa Rosa, CA
System Manufacturer: Oldcastle Infrastructure

PROJECT FACTS

Hardscape area drained: 5+/- acres
Total lineal feet of bioretention cells: 2,500 ft
Total bioretention surface area: 15,000 sf
Scheduled completion: August 2014

A large construction project such as a major league sports stadium can include significant expanses of runoff- generating hardscape. A venue capable of seating nearly 70,000 people requires large grounds and parking areas. If rain can turn a football field into a mud pit, it can also turn a parking lot into a floodplain. Draining that area effectively and treating the runoff is a basic function that should be provided from the very beginning of the project, but it can present challenges.

The new San Francisco 49ers Stadium in Santa Clara, California is a case in point. The new stadium moves the team out of Candlestick Park in San Francisco, into a location with about double the stadium square footage, better freeway access, and more than twice the parking spaces. Parking lot runoff always carries with it petrochemical pollutants that drip or leak from vehicles, as well as litter and other debris. The new stadium sits adjacent to San Tomas Aquino Creek, which flows directly into the Guadalupe Slough and San Francisco Bay, sensitive ecologies less than six miles away. The site is on land with a high water table, and existing storm-drain lines are not very far below the surface. An infiltration system would not work.

To handle stormwater in the parking lots, access roads, and other hardscape surrounding the stadium, project engineers GHD Engineering, San Francisco (formerly Winzler & Kelly) selected the TerraMod biofiltration system, a stormwater collection and natural treatment system made by industry leader Oldcastle Infrastructure. The stadium site will have six biofiltration systems, in parking lots and in the grounds immediately adjoining the stadium itself installed at the very outset of the project, even before the contract for stadium construction had been awarded, which added to the overall challenge.

THE TerraMod METHOD

Water is one of nature’s most powerful forces. Hardscaping can turn that force destructive, both in terms of erosion and pollution. A stormwater collection system has three mandatory functions:

Remove rainwater from the hardscape and other impervious surfaces
Channel runoff so it does not erode the surrounding landscape
Treat runoff so it does not pollute the landscape or downstream waters

Biofiltration is one of the simplest, most natural, and cost-effective ways to collect runoff and treat it onsite, and it is considered a best practice under U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines for Low-Impact Development (LID).

TerraMod is a modular system of precast concrete biofiltration units. The fully deployed system looks to the casual observer like nothing but a flower bed or tree-planter, with the earth-level somewhat lower than the surrounding pavement. Beneath the surface, it is a series of concrete cells filled with layers of mulch, biofiltration media and drainage rock, with pipe in the bottom to carry treated water out of the system.

The surface-level of soil in one of these biofiltration modules is about 6-inches below pavement-level, to provide ponding depth. In storm conditions, water runs into the modules, ponds, and percolates into the media, where it is naturally filtered along the way. The filtered water is collected in a perforated pipe that runs through the bottom of the biofiltration system and carries water into a storm drain system.

Filtered pollutants are naturally broken down by microbes and provide nutrients for the plantings in the module. Plants and trees are irrigated by the rainwater. In locations where rainfall may not be frequent or consistent enough to sustain them – such as the 49ers stadium – integral drip-lines that are built into the modules can deliver supplemental irrigation water.

TerraMod module types include basic units (used with small ornamental plantings), tree modules, pre-filtration units, light pole modules, and custom modules for special situations. Pre-filtration modules have an upper chamber designed to collect litter and other solid debris, and detain it so it does not interfere with drainage. Pre-filtration units must be periodically cleaned to dispose of collected debris.

Overflow drains are built into selected modules to handle extremely heavy rains. During unusually high flows, when the ponding depth is filled and cannot be drained fast enough through the filtration media to keep up with rainfall, the parking lot must still be protected from flooding. Excess water then goes into the overflow drains and directly into the stormwater system. The stadium system was designed to handle a 10-year rain event. Having an integrated overflow bypass built into the biofiltration system eliminates the need to design and install a separate peak conveyance system, as is often necessary with other biofiltration setups.

The biofiltration system prevents hazardous conditions and collects water so it does not erode the surrounding landscape. Simultaneously, it is treated so it can be safely reintroduced into the landscape or drained into the creek, the natural drainage basin of the area. Pollutants are kept out of the bay, but no chemicals are used, there are no moving parts to maintain, no energy is consumed to do it, and maintenance is minimized.

SPECIAL CONDITIONS

The high water table of the site was a primary challenge. Even though TerraMod closed-bottom modules would be able to filter runoff without interference from existing groundwater, the runoff system would have to tie into the existing, shallow storm-drain lines, dictating that the drain system could not go very deep into the ground. Modules for the 49ers stadium had to be custom designs that are slightly shallower than standard TerraMods.

The reduced filtration depth available had to be compensated for in the overall design of the drainage system by increasing bioretention surface area. The first system installed includes special units for that purpose. These sections are more than twice as wide as standard TerraMods, and are laid out perpendicular to the main system, with a large rounded end for aesthetic purposes and to allow for easier entry to neighboring parking stalls. The shape has been described as resembling a hockey-stick.

The architect designed the side walkway of one parking lot with a shallow S-shaped jog in its otherwise straight path. The biofiltration system runs along the edge of this walkway, and follows the jog. This required custom modules. None of the custom pieces caused any production delays or presented any problem to fit into the modular system.

CONSTRUCTING THE SYSTEM

The kickoff to construction at the stadium site was to create the parking lot on the east side, next to the training field. It will serve the parking needs of construction activities, plus those of the 49ers’ team offices. It was started in January 2012, months before the official ground-breaking for the stadium.

The lot has two biofiltration systems. The one on the north side, featuring the wide, rounded special modules, was manufactured and installed first. The main run is 2.5-feet wide and just over 600-feet long, mostly basic curb-cut units without pre-filtration. The hockey-stick modules that lie perpendicular to the main run are 7-feet wide. They divide the parking lot into six drainage management (DMAs) areas, each comprising about 100-feet of the main run, and each draining 7,500-10,000 square feet of parking and walkways.

Installation of the TerraMod units was relatively simple. The excavation was cut to the proper depth and leveled, and the units set in place. Sections weighed 10-13 tons. Joints between sections were sealed with a specialized tape and adhesive. The tops of the sections include holes for dowels to attach to adjacent pavements. At the ends of the U-shaped sections, a small amount of fresh concrete was required to fill around curves. Perforated pipe was laid into the bottom and connected to the overflow drains, and the system was ready to be filled with drainage rock and filtration media.

The drainage rate is determined by the surface area of the bioretention system and by the composition of the filtration media. The system does not require proprietary biofiltration media. For the 49ers stadium, engineers accordance with the Contra Costa County requirements. Other growing media blends are capable of drainage as high as 100 in/hr, where required. Computed against the size of the lot and the predictable rainfall, the size of the required bioretention system can be calculated. However, the media must be selected not only for drainage characteristics, but also for compatibility with the intended plantings.

The greatest challenge of the first phase proved to be timing. The underground contractor had a mere 70 days to install the system and tie it into an existing stormdrain, or pay liquidated damages of $25,000/day for every day the project ran over. Use of the TerraMod system helped him meet this deadline. The modules for the first system were manufactured and delivered in under six weeks. The second system was installed later, with a mere two weeks production time for 55 modules. The two systems will be fully installed, filled, and planted by early June 2012.

The contractor noted there was a learning curve, but it was a fast one. They installed 120-feet of the system on the first day. By the fourth day, they set 480-feet in a day with a single crew.

The second, main phase of the project includes four more bioretention systems: two in a large parking lot south of the stadium, and two lining the walkway area surrounding the main entrance to the stadium. Onsite parking for the public will include about 10,000 parking spaces. A total of over 2,500 lineal feet of TerraMod cells, approximately 14,000 square feet of bioretention area, will drain the overall stadium site.

While the standard bioretention modules used in most of the 49ers project are 3-feet wide, two systems in the second phase feature tapered plans: one is 3-feet wide at one end and 14-feet at the other, an irregular wedge over 300-feet long. The other is 230-feet long and rectangular over most of its length, with a subtle taper at the south end. The main entrance to the stadium runs between the two systems, and the area they drain is immediately outside the luxury boxes. The unusual shapes were designed by the architect with specific visual goals, helping to define the focus of a key space in the stadium’s grounds.

THE LONG TERM

One of the great advantages of a biofiltration system is that it is easy to maintain and essentially self sustaining. It harnesses the method by which nature breaks down petrochemical pollutants, a process that needs little help from us. Debris must be occasionally removed from the system, and plants must be maintained like any other landscaping, but little more is necessary. The San Francisco 49ers biofiltration system will largely maintain itself, keeping the grounds looking good and safe from flooding, and protecting the San Francisco Bay and sensitive areas surrounding it from contamination.