Cody Binder and Justin Lyle

ET 493

Senior Design

Advisor: Mohamed Zeidan &Edward Rode

Construction

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Dunleith Lane Drainage System

AbstractAs a homeowner, proper drainage is very important. Improper drainage systems can cause numerous

troubles and even cost homeowners money from damages if overlooked. This makes designing drainage

systems in new construction and maintaining drainage systems in pre-existing areas an important

objective.

Project Description

Phase 1 (Fall 2014):

For our project, we will be working on correcting the current drainage problems in a subdivision

in Mandeville, Louisiana called Twin Oaks. The main goal of the first semester will be to

establish exactly what is causing the drainage problems.

The current observed issues with the drainage system are:

Standing water in ditches in front of houses

Water backing up in main drainage ditch into homeowners back yards

To find out what the problem is we will be conducting a survey on the surrounding area to

establish why the water is deviating in the wrong areas and not draining into the correct path.

We will also give detailed drawings with locations of exacting structures, drains and the

elevations that were taken from the survey.

Phase 2 (Spring 2014):

For the second phase of our project we will use the information collected from the first

semester to try and establish a solution to the drainage problem. We will include a descriptive

report about different solutions for the problems that the subdivision is facing. The final report

will also include detailed drawings for the selected solution based on cost and time

requirements for each of the investigated alternatives.

Phase 1(Fall 2014) Schedule

• 10/8-Proposal/PowerPoint

• 10/13-Receive written permission from homeowners’ association

• 10/19-If possible receive any existing drawings from city or homeowner’s association

• 10/27-Take detailed pictures of area

• 11/2-Measure Dimensions of neighborhood

• 11/10-Create Preliminary drawings with dimensions

• 11/17-Survey the area

• 11/24-Analysis of the collected data to identify causes of the problem.

• 12/1-Complete final presentation

Phase 1(Deliverables)

Surveying the neighborhood with surveying tools

Create Drawings of the neighborhoodMethodology of Survey

To begin the survey we used a transit, measuring rod, a transit tripod and measuring tape. The

homeowners association provided us with the as-built drawings of the drainage system that

was done in 2000. By performing this survey, we could obtain the current elevations of the

drainage and compare it with the elevations of the original drainage system. We went into the

subdivision and set up our transit and transit tripod. Once the transit was wet up, we then had

to level the transit completely to give us accurate elevations that we could us in our drawing

comparison. One of use would go set up in the same spots that the as-built drawing had

elevations on and hold the measuring rod. After obtaining the shots, we would then write them

onto our preliminary drawings that we had established. Later we had to first convert all of the

shots that were shot from different benchmarks to the same scale. This was done by shooting

numerous shots on the same spots, but from different benchmarks. When you have two

readings from one spot with two different benchmark, you can then use the difference

between the two to put them into the same scale. Next to transfer the shots into elevation

readings we had to assume an elevation from one spot. We used an elevation taken on the

road from the as-built drawing. The road elevation was the best spot to assume because the

elevation has not changed. From the original assumption, we were then able to establish

elevations for all of the shots we took into the field. After looking over the as-built drawings and

the current drawings, we were able to see that many of the slopes in the drainage have

flattened out.

Methodology of creating the drawings

In order to effectively conduct a survey, we would first need a set of preliminary drawings. The

preliminary drawings would act as a set of field prints that were really rough, but were still clear

enough for us to conduct all of our calculations and allow us to accurately label elevations. In

order to obtain our drawings, we used large tracing drawings paper to trace the original

drawings. The tools we used were a pencil, a straight edge and a protractor. By tracing the

original drawings, we were able to get an accurate portrayal of the neighborhood and also the

drawing would be on scale. After transferring all of our shots on our preliminary drawings, we

then traced another cleaner and detailed version of our original drawings. This copy was more

aesthetically pleasing and would clearly display all of the elevations that we had taken from the

survey. The final copy will also help us explain how the drainage system is supposed to function.

The last drawing we did was of a sketch of one of our problem areas. One of the problem areas

was outside of the neighborhood and to help explain the problem we created a detailed sketch.

Problem Areas

After conducting our survey and doing basic analysis on the subdivision’s drainage system. We

were able to point out several problem areas. These areas could easily be the causes for the

problems that are occurring in the subdivision. The first problem area are the ditches in the

front of the yards. The front ditches hold water after rain. One of the main reasons for this

problem is that the slopes of these ditches have eroded in many spots and instead of flowing in

the correct direction, in many spots the water just sits. Another problem we have seen is that

many of the culverts underneath driveways have been partially blocked from erosion. The

design of the drainage is supposed to take all of the water from the front yards and move it to a

larger ditch behind the lots of many of the residents. The ditches in the back yards also are a

problem area. When it rains these ditches back up into the back yards of the residents. The

ditches to begin with are way to flat and at a glance don’t even resemble a ditch. If you were to

examine some of the elevations taken in the ditches, it has increasing and decreasing slopes,

which does not match the required slopes stated in the as-built drawings.` The ditches are also

very grown up. After talking to one of the residents, we learned that there has never been any

kind of clearing of the shrubbery around the ditches. The last problem area we have noticed are

the ditches by the end of the driveway were all of the drainage from the neighborhood is

supposed to drain into the city drainage by the highway. This entire area is sunk way below the

ditches themselves and acts as a sink hole that holds standing water for long periods of time.

Problem Areas Photos

Plan View

Phase II Plans

Our goals for the second semester will be based around selecting the most effective and cost

efficient method of correcting the problems we have named. We will take a deep look into the

results we got from our survey and our first semester analysis to determine possible methods

of correcting the problems. After discovering which method would be the most cost effective

way and the most effective, we will then begin plans on how we would go about fixing our

problem. This would include us using estimating in order to create an estimated cost and create

a job budget. Next we would use scheduling skills that we have learned in order to determine

how we would schedule the process of correcting the problem.

Second Semester

1/27-Proposal

2/5-Establish Flow rate of current system

2/16-Research correcting drainage systems with same problem

2/26-Create an ideal drainage system

3/5-Calculate cut and fill

3/18-Create drawing of new system and cut and fill diagram

4/1-Estimate cost of project options

4/15-Create schedule for project

4/29-Establish most cost effective option

5/10-Final Presentation