Category Archives: Stormwater

A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 63

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Day 63 – Happy Halloween!

Halloween October 31

Culvert Lining Project

Today I spent the day mostly troubleshooting some problems. The concrete subcontractor for the culvert project was on site. From what I was told by the project engineer, there seemed to be some confusion over what was to be done for the concrete headwall replacement. In a way it didn't surprise us because we had been wondering about the work too. We  used a consultant to design the plans because of this structural component of the job. So we relied on their design for this work. However, we were surprised the plans showed little detail for this work. The consultant had provided a short special provision, but no drawing. Right before bidding, we added a detail on our own just because we thought the contractor would need some designation showing what was to be removed and replaced.

So today I called the consultant to ask if he would please explain to the contractor the structural design because as of today, the contractor had nothing to go on and was basically designing it as he formed it. And of course, we didn't think this was a good idea since he obviously was not a structural engineer nor was he performing any type of calculations. The consultant seemed to think the contractor should have designed the wall and submitted the design to us for approval. I didn't remember discussing this nor did I remember seeing this in the specs. And I did remember we had a cost set aside in the consultant's contract for structural design. And once the bid was approved, the consultant had billed the full amount for the project. So I imagined the structural work had been done.

Fortunately the consultant did send me a sketch by the end of the day showing the design, but unfortunately for some reason he had only designed and shown the headwall from about the midpoint of the pipe to the top. So I emailed him back to ask if he could please provide the design for the other half of the wall. Hopefully we will get the rest of the design tomorrow so the contractor can come back and finish the project.

After all that, we started wondering if we would have been better off designing the project in house and sending out just the structural part to a structural engineer. Then we could have more direct control over the design and would just be incorporating his design into the plans we develop. 

Public Works Meeting

We also had our public works monthly meeting with the superintendents. We couldn't spend as much time going over everything like we normally do because a few of them had a meeting following this one, and we spent most of the meeting dicussing finances with our finance director. He was invited so we could ask questions about the budget to help us better understand how to track and code our invoices.

I also learned at the meeting that the whole state of Illinois is now considered to be in quarantine for the EAB so we can transport Ash tree logs/branches anywhere in the state. From what I understand they cannot be taken across state lines.

In this meeting I also asked about fixing another problem we have noticed. It's a small hole developing in a pavement that was built a few years back. Although it looked like at first we had no utilities there, after checking the plans, it now looks like it could be at the location of where an old inlet was supposed to have been removed and abandoned. It was decided to dig it up and see why it is failing – although we are not sure yet, some reasons could be the contractor never did properly remove it, or he did and failed to properly compact the fill. It was a project inspected by a consultant so we have no records showing exactly what was done.

Parking Lot Project

Today we heard from the consultant we have designing the lighting for our parking lot. After trying a few different types of lights, he has not been able to find a light that meets the city's photometric requirements. At this point, the only thing I can think of doing is to ask a lighting vendor to pick something out. That's what I used to do where I worked before so I'm hoping tomorrow we can call a few and ask them to help figure out what lights will work best for our lot.

Utility Permit

Finally, I received a call at the end of the day from a business downtown because they were concerned that a utility company was installing an underground conduit on private property without permission. I had signed a permit for the utility to do the work which included running a line down a portion of the city's alley, then turning to run through the property of the customer asking for service. Because the utility is responsible for making sure they are on the right property, I told the person calling that I would contact the utility and let them know they need to make sure they are on the right property. And when I called, the permit coordinator told me his manager was already on his way to the site.

 

 

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A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 61

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Day 61

Balancing Budget Line Items

I finally completed the analysis of my budget and identified two line items that needed to have funds amended to agree with the actual expenditures. Fortunately there were amounts in related funds that I could amend to a lower amount so the overall change to my division's budget is zero. I'm also hoping that we get new software at some point so the whole process of monitoring the finances for our divisions is easier and more efficient.

Geneva Culvert Lining - Grouting 2011

Culvert Lining Project

We stopped out at our culvert lining project again today to check out the grouting operation. The crews created bulkheads at each end of the culvert. They had placed plastic pipes into the annular space through which they pumped grout. It took the whole day to pump a total of 18 cubic yards into the space. Next they will form up the headwalls and probably pour on Monday. The one photo shows the concrete truck discharging the grout to the pump and the line from the pump to the plastic pipe leading to the annular space. The other photo below is a close up of the grout line and the plastic piping leading into the annular space.

Geneva Culvert Lining - Grouting 2011

Prairie Green

Our city owns a large natural area called Prairie Green. It was purchased and developed through a bond several years ago after the citizens voted to pursue creating a green buffer at the city's west limits. Part of the area will eventually be a developed wetland – so far we only have a portion of the total wetland completed and are monitoring it. One of the issues we've been having is establishing the proper plant material because the area floods each Spring. So last week, our water department installed a culvert across a berm through the southern portion of the property. The plan is that this pipe will help drain the area that floods. Today the community development director, who is the project manager, and I visited the site to inspect the new culvert.

Miscellaneous work

I spent the rest of the day handling a lot of small, miscellaneous tasks such as checking out questions from developers, organizing my room and desk (it really needed it!), organizing email, helping our intern with measuring the proposed sidewalk/curb ramp work for next year's road project, and discussing with one of the street foremen what roads should be patched or paved next year. I also contacted our IT department to ask them to look at helping out one of my staff get their computer running better. For some reason it was taking forever to start up each morning. Fortunately it looks like they found the problem and were able to get it operating faster.

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A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 60

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Day 60

Culvert Lining Project

Geneva Culvert Lining Project 2011

Today was the day the liner was delivered for our culvert lining project. The placement of it seemed to go well. The contractor will finish grouting the annular space tomorrow. A resident did stop by to tell us we didn't know what we were doing, and it would never work, and he would sue everyone when water backed up into his home. Of course, he had no  information to base his opinion on other than the new pipe is of a smaller diameter than the existing one. So the other staff members tried to explain the hydraulics and design information to give him an idea of why a smaller pipe can carry the same or more water, but he still didn't believe anyone. So he contacted the elected officials to express his concern. I let the engineer who designed the culvert project know about the complaint. 

It's unfortunate, but this seems to happen so much where a group of professionals put in a lot of time designing a project, and then someone stops by and tells everyone they are all wrong, and it will never work. And they never seem to have any facts or information to base their opinion on. 

I have to admit I have seen some poor designs in general executed over the past 30 years, however, none related to culvert sizing. And even those poor designs did not cause failures or damage – they were just not good designs and usually ended up impacting our operations and increasing our costs. So the city had to do more work to make the final product better and improve efficiency and cut costs. But I can't remember where there was property damage that could be attributed to bad design – maybe poor construction but not poor design.

Of course, the bottom line in a something like this is that anyone building or buying a home next to a creek increases their risk of having water entering their home during a storm. Particularly when openings like doors or windows are installed that allow for a way for water to enter the home. Culverts and other stormwater facilities are only designed to carry a certain storm intensity. If a storm occurs that is greater than the design storm, the culvert or other stormwater infrastructure will not convey all the water and could allow water to back up and enter nearby structures. So for our situation, whether we leave the old culvert or install a new one with equal or greater capacity, there will always be a risk that a storm occurs that will not be handled by the culvert and water could back up into homes – that is the risk of owning property next to a body of water.

Intersection Enhancements

We also met with a vendor who sells traffic control products. He did a great job showing us some alternatives for the intersection where we are trying to draw attention to a pedestrian crossing. One product we are particularly interested in is a sign and light called the "Enhancer." Here is the link to a site showing the product: http://www.statewidetrafficsafety.com/enhancer.asp.

Miscellaneous

We did manage to get our staff meeting in today. And I continued on trying to check our budget line items.

 

 

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A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 56

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Day 56

Water Main Project

This morning we finally found time to run out to look at the location of our proposed easement for the water main project I've been working on. Fortunately it looks like the location in the field where I had planned to take it through a local industry's property (if they are agreeable to this) matches well with the plans. The other location goes through a local park, and based on the field location, I think I will adjust it just a little to minimize some bends. Normally we would have had this surveyed at the start, but I was unable to get a survey done at the time so had to rely on the aerial for the initial placement. Now I can finalize the alignment, secure the easements (if the property owners agree), and send it to the IEPA for a permit!

Broken Field Tile?

Later in the morning, our community development director and I ran out to a large tract of land the city owns. The person who farms a portion of the land had reported some standing water so we wanted to investigate the area. It appears to us there could be a broken tile. But it also appears the broken tile might actually be on someone else's property. I still have to discuss this situation with the rest of the staff to determine what, if anything, we might need to do. I realize normally a farmer would repair the tile, but because the purpose of this land is to remain green space – not necessarily farm land, we didn't think this water was causing any issues at the moment.

Public Works Staff Meeting

Later we had our monthly public works staff meeting with all the managers. There was so much to talk about, our group barely had time to share updates on our engineering projects. One of the primary issues under discussion right now is the removal of the ash trees that have been damaged by the Emerald Ash Bore.

Stormwater Meeting

Finally, I represented the city at a regional meeting to discuss stormwater funding and regulations in our area. Our intern was here today so he came with me. Whenever we bring interns to our meetings like this, they come away surprised at how much time we spend on what appears to be non-technical issues. But in the end, I try to explain we need to understand and be part of the decisions regarding funding and regulations and laws in order to be able to properly plan, design, and build. 

 

 

 

 

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A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 52

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Day 52

Although I worked in the office for a few hours today mainly on correspondence and checking with our inspector and engineers to find out the status of some projects, most of my day was spent at our APWA Public Works Camp. This event is our second unconference session that we've hosted, and both have been a great success! Next year another branch is going to host one, and there's been some discussions of expanding it out. We had about 24 people attend and offer some great information and knowledge about many different aspects of public works. I tried to capture the highlights of the discussion using the Cover It Live tool. So if you want to read over the log, pop on over to the Public Works Camp Site!

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A Day in the Life of a Civil Engineer – Day 50

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Day 50

Geneva Photos

Today was Wednesday so we had our engineering division staff meeting. Like our last staff meeting, it seemed there was quite a bit to discuss. Everyone shared the status of their projects and other tasks they have been working on. We have been on schedule with everything except for a few projects that have been delayed because agreements have not yet been reached with some property owners.

One of our projects that consists of adding a third deck to our existing commuter parking garage has been delayed because the RTA has been reviewing it for about 3 months now. We haven't heard anything, nor do we know why it is taking so long. Metra already performed their review, and we received their comments within a few weeks. So now we cannot start building before winter and will have to wait to bid it out. This means construction won't begin until next Spring. I guess that's $3.5 million dollars worth of work that is on the shelf instead of creating jobs and stimulating our economy! (Our garage is shown in the back and to the right in this photo.)

Failed storm sewer pipe

We took a field visit to a job site where our water department has been working on a "sinkhole." Usually these holes show up in pavement or yards because of some failure in the sewer system. In this case, it appears the concrete storm sewer pipe had settled allowing a pipe joint to open up on the bottom. So when water flowed through, sand from the area around the pipe would be lost. Our crew dug up the area, sealed the joint,and backfilled the hole. I wish I had taken a photo, but had not brought my camera.

Racoons don't fit in sewers!

IMG_4908

We've already had problems with racoons in one sewer in town where two had become wedged and died. We finally discovered them when we received reports of the pipe not flowing properly. Well, today our water foreman was on scene with the crew to rescue a racoon who had wedged himself between the openings of an inlet curb frame. He managed to pull out the racoon, but the animal, being scared, tried to run right back in and wedged himself even worse. So the foreman tried again to pull him out by his tail. The crew videotaped it  - I wish I could have gotten a copy to show here! The second time he pulled him out, he pulled him far enough back so when he released him the racooon ran off under the truck. Wow! Not sure I would have tried to pull a racoon out of a sewer! (The photo, by Andrew Ratto, is not of the racoon we rescued, but illustrates that racoons love to hang out in sewers!)

Development Issues

I am still messing around with that review of a development where we discovered the water main had to be lowered. Today I had to send out an email asking for the engineer to document the changes he will be making. Later in the day, staff had some email discussions about other concept developments in the community so I participated in those.

Performance review and Goals and Objectives

Today, I also had my mid-year performance review. And I still need to hold the reviews for the rest of my staff. I also revised my goals and objectives 2nd quarter report and resubmitted it because the city administrator asked for all of us to submit them in a standard format.

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