Are there any storm water drainage engineers out there? I am a property owner just North of the Hwy 331 bridge and there are some major concerns regarding the storm water run off from this project. Lochner is the firm that developed the drainage design and there seems to be major flaws in their study:
1. The road is 4.5 feet higher all the way to Short Avenue then it drops down to meet the existing grade on the causeway. Does that make sense to anyone? If FDOT only had money for a 10 year plan then why raise the highway 4.5 feet which cost an extra 30 million dollars? It seems the Lochner study utilized a different set of criteria for raising the road than they did for the causeway that will not be widened or raised.
2. Lochner changed some of the design plans by removing shoulder ditches and inserting small pipes to funnel storm water from existing property line ditches. These small pipes are filling up and flooding property owners. So far they have told us that it is not their problem.
3. Lochner also approved removing other shoulder ditches and replaced with a small concrete basins which is above the existing property grades. It is hard for me to believe that it was a mistake at this point unless they think we are stupid. It seems if the property is vacant they just assumed the owner will not care if they turn the property into a storm water retention pond!
4. Lochner approved hydroseeding the massive shoulders of the raised highway. Every time it rains dirt is being washed down into the bottom of these ditches and eventually into 24 inch pipe that in some places is well over 75 feet. Sod on the shoulders and rock in the bottom would reduce dirt and debris from getting into the pipe (which restricts flow) but it costs money so they would rather monitor the situation which means "we will wait until water finds it's way into homes and building first". There is NO known maintenance schedule for the shoulders, ditches and pipes to ensure no dirt or debris reduces the effectiveness of the drainage design.
5. In my case and because I have been complaining they have cut a massive ditch all the way into my property with such a slope that water now runs from our property into the road ditch which is now eroding our property into that slope and into the bottom of the ditch. It was determined that no buffer or sod between our property and the ditch is necessary. I guess it will be up to the property owners to pay for a solution.
6. The new retention ponds are already full and the road is not even 1/2 complete. There is no method for them to draw down these ponds before storms to accept the large amount of storm water from the widened road, massive shoulders and 63 foot medians during heavy rains like occurred last summer. If the ponds fill it automatically flows into an overflow basin that is connected to the bay with pipe. This pipe is already buried and I have been trying to get them to tell me the diameter of that pipe because if it fills up that means the retention ponds may stop receiving storm water from the road drainage system however the construction people do not seem to know the diameter!?!
7. The 24 inch pipes underneath our driveways must have sufficient capacity to drain water from the ditches before they fill up and spill over into our properties. You do not have to be an engineer to understand that even if there were no dirt or debris in these long pipes that it would not be sufficient to keep the ditches from filling up during heavy rainfall of about 5 inches per hour. Lochner's study will not come close to dispersing the type of storm water that would have occurred last summer if the road had been complete. Are we supposed to just hope that we will not get rainfall like that ever again?
I have contacted FDOT's project manager Bill Tempner but so far he has been too busy to get back with me. If anyone has suggestions regarding storm water systems I would be very interested to speak with them.
1. The road is 4.5 feet higher all the way to Short Avenue then it drops down to meet the existing grade on the causeway. Does that make sense to anyone? If FDOT only had money for a 10 year plan then why raise the highway 4.5 feet which cost an extra 30 million dollars? It seems the Lochner study utilized a different set of criteria for raising the road than they did for the causeway that will not be widened or raised.
2. Lochner changed some of the design plans by removing shoulder ditches and inserting small pipes to funnel storm water from existing property line ditches. These small pipes are filling up and flooding property owners. So far they have told us that it is not their problem.
3. Lochner also approved removing other shoulder ditches and replaced with a small concrete basins which is above the existing property grades. It is hard for me to believe that it was a mistake at this point unless they think we are stupid. It seems if the property is vacant they just assumed the owner will not care if they turn the property into a storm water retention pond!
4. Lochner approved hydroseeding the massive shoulders of the raised highway. Every time it rains dirt is being washed down into the bottom of these ditches and eventually into 24 inch pipe that in some places is well over 75 feet. Sod on the shoulders and rock in the bottom would reduce dirt and debris from getting into the pipe (which restricts flow) but it costs money so they would rather monitor the situation which means "we will wait until water finds it's way into homes and building first". There is NO known maintenance schedule for the shoulders, ditches and pipes to ensure no dirt or debris reduces the effectiveness of the drainage design.
5. In my case and because I have been complaining they have cut a massive ditch all the way into my property with such a slope that water now runs from our property into the road ditch which is now eroding our property into that slope and into the bottom of the ditch. It was determined that no buffer or sod between our property and the ditch is necessary. I guess it will be up to the property owners to pay for a solution.
6. The new retention ponds are already full and the road is not even 1/2 complete. There is no method for them to draw down these ponds before storms to accept the large amount of storm water from the widened road, massive shoulders and 63 foot medians during heavy rains like occurred last summer. If the ponds fill it automatically flows into an overflow basin that is connected to the bay with pipe. This pipe is already buried and I have been trying to get them to tell me the diameter of that pipe because if it fills up that means the retention ponds may stop receiving storm water from the road drainage system however the construction people do not seem to know the diameter!?!
7. The 24 inch pipes underneath our driveways must have sufficient capacity to drain water from the ditches before they fill up and spill over into our properties. You do not have to be an engineer to understand that even if there were no dirt or debris in these long pipes that it would not be sufficient to keep the ditches from filling up during heavy rainfall of about 5 inches per hour. Lochner's study will not come close to dispersing the type of storm water that would have occurred last summer if the road had been complete. Are we supposed to just hope that we will not get rainfall like that ever again?
I have contacted FDOT's project manager Bill Tempner but so far he has been too busy to get back with me. If anyone has suggestions regarding storm water systems I would be very interested to speak with them.
Last edited by a moderator:
