Bono Consulting Civil Engineers has prepared engineering plans for hundreds of sites that required engineering drawings to improve existing drainage. Many yards have low spots that collect water during rain events. This makes it extremely difficult to have a useable lawn because it has standing water for a week or two after every rain event, and then the grass dies and it becomes muddy. The trick is to raise the grades in the yard to maximize dry useable space without damming the water flowing onto the site from adjacent properties. So you have to keep a low area along the property line and collect the water at that point. Then what do you do with the water? Some communities will allow you to construct storm sewer and make a connection to the Village sewer. Other communities will allow you to collect the water and pump it up to discharge in the parkway or front lawn, but not make a hard connection to the sewer system. These systems work fine in the warm months but generally have to be disconnected in the winter to prevent the pumps from freezing. Other options are to design water infiltration systems such as dry wells or rain gardens to give the water a chance to soak back into the soil.
We have also prepared numerous plans for rainwater harvesting systems. These systems collect rainwater from the downspouts and pass it to a large underground storage tank. The water is then reused to water the lawn and landscaping. The downspouts are equipped with in-line filters to keep leaves and seeds out of the tank. The tanks then have additional filters to screen the water before it enters the settling area. The water can then be pumped out to either a hose spigot or to a lawn sprinkler system.
If an owner wants to add new patios, decks, terraces, driveways, pools or hot tubs, they may need to prepare an engineering plan depending on the amount of additional impervious surface that is added. The reason that the village is requesting an engineering plan is because they want to ensure that the proposed new surface will not cause a problem to either the owner’s house or to the neighbor’s house. We would design it in a way that can drain to the street or to the lawn so that there is no ponding that might be an icing hazard in the winter.
Site Design Engineering Chicago | Storm Water Management Engineering Chicago
Site Design Engineering | Storm Water Management Engineering