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Highway Drainage - A Basic Guide
Highway Drainage - A Basic Guide
A Practical Guide
Paul Jones
Lewes Consult
Introduction
Highway drainage is a funny subject! Deceptively simple on the face of it
although like a lot of things, the devil is in the detail.
Since highway drainage runs from the start to the end, it impacts on almost
every aspect of the highway scheme itself, from what it will ultimately look like
to how much land-take is required, from what pollution control is required to
options for the pavement construction. Highway drainage takes up about 810% of the scheme capital cost but about 20% of the design fees due to all
the stakeholders it engages with and the complexity of each element.
Index
1
The Basics.
Types of Road
Design Considerations
Flow control
Discharge consents
Culvert design
10
11
12
SuDS Guidance
13
14
The Basics
Highway drainage design is the umbrella term used to describe the
steps involved in producing a coherent and consistent answer to the
need to drain both the carriageway and the surrounding catchment of
rain.
In only 1 hour, I cannot expect to cover this subject in anything other
than the most superficial level but I hope to give you a taster of the
scope and breath of the subject and how it impacts on other discipline,
both at the time of initial design and later on when inspections and
maintenance are required.
The likely format of this lecture will be:
Types of road
Not all roads are created equally. Expectations of both performance
and maintenance standards differ wildly with not just the public but also
with designers.
2.1
2.2
Rural Roads
At the opposite extreme
from the motorway, the
rural road is usually a
patchwork
of
field
boundaries strung together
to form a route.
These
are
the
responsibility of the local
authority
who
usually
manages ditch cleaning,
culverts and the like on an ad-hoc basis together with pot-hole repairs
and resurfacing when the original finally falls apart. Flooding is usually
the result of field run-off from unmanaged or nonexistent ditches or
unloved gulleys and pipework that dont get cleaned out due to budget
cuts or savings! A common theme of most drainage engineers is the
lack of maintenance their output gets once in the ground.
The current epidemic of pot-holes following last winters heavy rain
should remind us of the importance of effective drainage on roads.
However, this is rarely the case. The year before it was frost heave.
Hey ho.
2.3
3.1
Drainage ditches
The historic method for flow collection, especially
where kerbs are not installed. Water simply runs off
the carriageway into the ditch. Management of these
is usually provided by the relevant local authority
highways team as are the connecting culverts,
headwalls etc.
French drains
Grass swales
Design Considerations
4.1
Horizontal Alignment
Vertical Alignment
4.3
Highways in Cutting
Where the carriageway is to
be built below the natural site
contour the scheme is
described as being in
cutting.
The
catchment
area
increases to include the face
of the cutting and hard strip
and typically this run-off can
include a lot of silt so its usual to keep this flow separate from the
highway drainage although it will probably discharge at the same
location. It also means that the interceptors dont get clogged up and
can be designed for just the hydrocarbon load based on the
carriageway area and traffic volumes.
Combined filter drains can typically accommodate both the highway
and the cutting as the grass top acts as a filter.
Depending on the original contours, another drain may be required to
intercept the flows at the top of the embankment. These drains are
called cut-off drains and, along with the drains at the top of
embankments are generally described as secondary drainage.
Some cuttings are deep enough to impact on the natural water-table. In
these cases, the stability of the entire carriageway structure will be
dependent on effective de-watering the entire area. How we do this is a
bit specialised for this course!
4.4
Highways on Embankments
Where the carriageway is to be built above the natural site contour the
scheme is described as being on embankment.
The catchment area will include not only the carriageway but also the
faces of the embankment and the hard strip; the last two typically
forming part of the secondary drainage system.
It is important to insure that the stability of the embankment is not
compromised by the choice of edge drainage. Combined filter drains
are difficult to construct at the top of large embankments as the
exposed nib can fall over during maintenance (that and the flows can
simply run down the bank rather than stay in the drain). It is more usual
to simply have carrier drains on embankments with kerbs and gulleys
which afford some control for vehicles.
5.1
5.4
Soakaway for areas where the underground soil type can allow
rainwater to percolate into the sub-strata, the use of soakways is a
useful mechanism to recharge groundwater levels subject to pollution
risk assessments and controls upstream.
The need for storage
goes
hand-in-hand
with the need for flow
control (see below)
where
the
combination
work
together as part of the
overall
drainage
solution.
.
It is considered that the risk associated with any/all of the above is
proportional to traffic flows (including those generated from the
proposal itself) and the specific location involved.
Contemporary pollution control devices are split between full and bypass interceptors. The former contains 50mm of rainfall over the
catchment area while the latter contains up to 8mm on the basis that it
is this first flush which contains 90% of the pollution. (The rest is
considered diluted by the rest of the rainfall).
6.1
6.2
By-pass interceptor
These are used where pollution risk is
considered low(ish) or where the
ramifications of a pollution incident are
considered nominal. (major roads
without junctions, car-parks, etc) only
the first flush is collected.
6.3
Silt removal
These devices are used increasingly for
pollution control since about 80% of
hydrocarbon pollutants stick to silt particles.
Thus,
removing
these
particulates
effectively reduces both BOD and COD
levels downstream.
As with all drainage assets, these devices
require cyclical maintenance and
inspections otherwise they quickly become
dilapidated and ineffective.
6.4
Environmental issues
The Environment Agency1 produces ground-water protection maps
where abstractions occur, called Aquifer Protection Zones
Principal Aquifers
These are layers of rock or drift deposits that have high intergranular and/or fracture
permeability - meaning they usually provide a high level of water storage. They may
support water supply and/or river base flow on a strategic scale. In most cases, principal
aquifers are aquifers previously designated as major aquifer.
Secondary Aquifers
These include a wide range of rock layers or drift deposits with an equally wide range of
water permeability and storage. Secondary aquifers are subdivided into two types:
Secondary A - permeable layers capable of supporting water supplies at a local rather
than strategic scale, and in some cases forming an important source of base flow to rivers.
These are generally aquifers formerly classified as minor aquifers
Secondary B - predominantly lower permeability layers which may store and yield limited
amounts of groundwater due to localised features such as fissures, thin permeable
horizons and weathering. These are generally the water-bearing parts of the former nonaquifers.
Secondary Undifferentiated - has been assigned in cases where it has not been possible
to attribute either category A or B to a rock type. In most cases, this means that the layer
in question has previously been designated as both minor and non-aquifer in different
locations due to the variable characteristics of the rock type
http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/
6.5
From this graph, it becomes apparent that the 100-year events produce
a higher peak intensity than the 30-year storm. This is a simplified way
of describing what is a complex subject
Flow control
When rainwater falls on fields several things happen:
The topsoil becomes wet, absorbing the first drops before ponding
locally around plant stems and low-spots etc.
Some soakage into the underlying soil occurs to feed roots
If the storm is severe enough, some run-off occurs on the surface
which can fill local ditches or follow the natural topography to streams
etc.
The cumulative affect of the storm profile and site conditions will
elongate the response thus reducing the peak flow rate.
All of the above take time which
impacts on the overall response
to any particular storm and is
describes as Green Field Runoff2.
By way of comparison, when
rainfall falls on carriageway, the
following occurs:
Extracted from Urban Drainage, Third Edition - David Butler & John Davies
7.1
7.2
7.3
Discharge consents
Along with flow control, it is usual to have to get discharge consent
from whoever owns/controls the watercourse the highway ultimately
discharges into.
This can be from several sources:-
8.1
Environment Agency
The generally EA manages main watercourses and can thus set
maximum flow rates and volumes for the majority of schemes in the
UK.
Likewise, where scheme cross floodplains, measures to mitigate the
loss in storage volume must be made upstream by extending whats
there.
8.2
Water Company
Drainage systems where roof drainage is a component of the overall
flows, i.e. from housing estates, commercial developments and the like,
can be adopted by Water Companies keen to attract new customers. In
this case, Sewers for Adoption (the new 7th Ed.) would be the design
principal used to satisfy their needs under Section 104 of the Water
Industry Act (1991).
8.3
Local Authority
Since 2012, local authorities have been given responsibility for
alterations to minor watercourses although this does not include flow
rates or pollution control measures. Their power is therefore limited to
managing ditch profiles and possible culvert issues.
8.4
Culvert design
Typically, highway schemes tend to even out the peaks and troughs of
the vertical alignment along its route with the low points being
roughly coincident with those on the original site.
Original site contours are typically a
function of the erosive action of the
watercourse
that
shaped
the
landscape although many have dried
up or now run underground since
originally formed.
This means that it is usual to have to
provide culverts across valleys even
if they are dry so that the
embankment does not act as a dam.
Determining the maximum flow rate from a valley catchment can be
undertaken using many design principles; the DMRB, SIRIA and
FSR/FEH methodologies being the most common.
In any event, the practicalities of designing large pipes which cross
under carriageways are covered in the DMRB guidelines.
It is worth noting that large pipes can and often do come under the
auspices of the structures teams within the design scheme and they
deal with the headwalls, etc. In this case, we as drainage engineers
would really just specify levels, gradients and things like that.
10
Design Manual for Roads and Bridges (DMRB) Volume 4 Geotechnics and Drainage
Section 2 Drainage (Parts 1-9)
Part 1
HA 78/96 Design of Outfalls for Surface Water Channels
HA 39/98 Edge of Pavement Details
HA 103/06 Vegetative Treatment Systems for Highway Run-off
HA 106/04 Drainage of Runoff from Natural Catchments
Part 2
TA 80/99 Surface Drainage of Wide Carriageways
Part 3
HD 33/06 Surface and Sub-surface Drainage Systems for Highways
HA 102/00 Spacing of Road Gullies
HA 105/04 Sumpless Gullies
Part 4
HA 79/97 Edge pf Pavement Details for Porous Asphalt Surface Courses
HA 37/97 Hydraulic Design of Road-Edge Surface Water Channels
HA 41/90 Permeameter for Road Drainage Layers
HA 83/99 - Safety Aspects of Road Edge Drainage Features
HD 43/04 - Drainage Data Management System for Highways Agency
HA 217/08 - Alternative Filter Media and Surface Stabilisation Techniques for Combined Surface and
Sub-Surface Drains
HA 219/09 - Determination of Pipe Roughness and Assessment of Sediment Deposition to Aid
Pipeline Design
Part 5
HA 40/01 - Determination of Pipe Roughness and Assessment of Sediment Deposition to Aid
Pipeline Design
HA 104/09 - Chamber Tops and Gully Tops for Road Drainage and Services: Installation and
Maintenance
Part 6
HA 113/05 - Combined Channel and Pipe System for Surface Water Drainage
Part 7
HA 107/04 - Design of Outfall and Culvert Details
Part 8
Storm returns
Highway drainage differs from other drainage design (i.e. housing
estates) insofar as the key performance indicators used reflect the
need to protect the carriageway construction as well as flood
prevention. DMRB describes these in details- suffice to say here, the
sub-base must remain drained to prevent rainwater forcing itself back
through the construction during heavy storms.
11
Climate change affects Total flows insofar as both the rainfall pattern
and the antecedent conditions on the ground become altered.
Development and Flood Risk states that peak rainfall
intensity is likely to increase by 30% by 2085 - Planning Policy
Statement 25
The revitalised FSR/FEH rainfall-run-off Method Supplementary Report No 1, Thomas, Rodding & Kjeldson
Highways Agency - Climate Change Risk Assessment - August 2011
12
SuDS Guidance
A recent trend in highway schemes is to incorporate flow management,
pollution control and collection into a more organic solution which is
visually less intrusive than traditional separate methods.
While attractive these schemes are not without issues, the major one
being the costs associated with maintenance and asset management
against a backdrop of serviceability, vandalism and pressures on small
sites to provide adequate parking/recreational space.
SuDS schemes are often considered more landscape gardening than
robust engineering solution by many and the complexity of their design
elements which often needs fine tuning to balance the various flows
can be a hindrance to their popularity. They appear to have little
resilience to extreme storms and are to a large extent dependent on
site conditions/soil types, etc. to work.
13
13.1
WinDES
13.2
13.3
PMS Another industry-popular software package which
incorporates both the highway alignment strings and drainage levels
etc. Thus, changes to the design feed through to the hydraulics
automatically. (not necessarily a good thing!)
14
14.1
HADDMS
The HAGDMS and HADDMS team are pleased to announce the following additions and changes to the
system. These items will be formally launched with documentation, webinars etc shortly but are
now available for use by Service Providers.
Geotechnical Incident Reporting - allows input of incidents associated with GAD observations,
input of information such as impact on the carriageway, and one-off and ongoing costs associated
with the incident. Existing GAD Editors have access to add and edit incidents and their costs,
and MAGLEs will see a new box on the main screen listing any "Preliminary" status incidents in
their Area(s) for approval.
Spills Register - allows locations and details of spillage incidents to be entered. This operates in
a similar way to the Flood Events Register. Each spill is assessed against the criteria in HD45 and
a Spill Severity Index is calculated. Existing Drainage Editors are able to add and edit spill details,
and these can be "closed" by the DLE once all required information has been entered.
The Flood Severity Index calculation methodology no longer takes into account the time of day
a flood occurred. The new definition is available for registered users to download from the
Downloads page. FSIs for all existing floods have been recalculated, which will mean that the FSI
for some flood events has increased. National FSI percentile values will be recalculated for the
March monthly drainage report, available in early April - please contact support if you require
these sooner.
New EA map layers have been added showing river catchment extents and waterbodies defined
under the Water Framework Directive. Waterbodies are shown with their current overall status
(indicated by the colour) and overall objective (displayed in a tooltip together with other details).
A number of minor improvements have also been carried out across other areas of the system to address
various user-reported issues.
14.2
EXOR the Highways Agency and local authorities both use this
database to record surface-based highway assets and schedule
maintenance/inspections.
Typically, EXOR ignores assets
underground which may go some way to explain our current
predicament!
It is noted that while using the Wallingford Procedure runoff method the following subcatchment slope values are recommended:
Recommended Sub-Catchment Slope Values:
1.25% - mild slope
2.75% - medium slope
4.0% - steep slope
M5-60 - The rainfall intensity sixty minutes into a five year storm;
r - the ratio between the M5-60 and the M5-2day storm intensity;
Each constant has fixed values for a specific location, and these are obtained from
hydrological maps.
Masterdrain includes images of these maps, in National Grid squares, by kind permission of
H R Wallingford. The program also contains a database of over 4000 UK locations with the
constants already extracted from the maps.
This method of calculating rainfall is an essential part of the program. A fuller explanation of
this method can be obtained from Vol. 1 of the 'Wallingford Procedure'.
Land Drainage Act (1991) Schedule 4 Schemes for small drainage works
Planning Act (2008) Part 3, Section 22 Highways, Sections 27/28 Water and
Section 29 Wastewater
Water Industry Act (1991) Section 115 Highway drainage and sewers
New Roads and Street Works Act (1991) Sections 89 & 148 Sewers