DEVELOPER SERVICES DRAINAGE

TECHNICAL ASSESSMENT OF ADOPTABLE SEWERAGE DESIGNS

SELF HELP GUIDE FOR DESIGNERS
The role of the Developer Services Drainage Engineer is to ensure that all adoptable sewer
designs comply with Sewers for Adoption and any other Anglian Water requirements.

All Section 104 applications undergo an initial assessment to ensure that all the required
information has been provided. If information is missing you will be advised accordingly
and the application will not be passed to the relevant Drainage Engineer for first
assessment.

Once all the relevant information has been provided the application is deemed complete
and is passed to the relevant Drainage Engineer for the first assessment. We have a 20
working day level of service and during this time a thorough design assessment will be
undertaken and comments returned to you.

Make sure that all the required information is provided with your application. The
information required is listed in the application form for easy reference.

Ensure that all elements of the design are consistent. Our Engineers are not ‘design
checkers’ and if the design includes inconsistencies, e.g. layout plans do not
correspond with the long sections, the design will be returned unchecked. All drawings
should be checked and approved, by someone other than the designer before they are
submitted.

Use the ‘standard assessment checklist’ to ensure that the design is as compliant as it
can be before it is submitted. Please submit the checklist with your application and
please ensure that where compliance cannot be achieved, you provide an explanation
within a covering letter. Please bear in mind that the reasons for non-compliance may
not be obvious to our Engineers and time can be saved if we are aware of any site
specific issues at the first assessment stage. A blank version of the standard
assessment checklist is available on our 'Designing a public sewer' web page.

Use our Standard Adoptable Sewerage detail which is also available on our 'Designing
a public sewer' webpage. We are aware that bespoke details are often required,
however, both sides would benefit from avoiding the need to exchange comments
regarding the standard manhole types that are used so commonly. All you need to do
is tick the box on the application form to state that the standard detail will be used
and no further standard details need to be submitted. This also precludes the need for
you to provide a manhole schedule for us to review.
 The standard detail also includes pipe bedding details and if you provide a note on
your long sections to indicate compliance with these details, there is no requirement
to indicate bedding for each individual pipe run.

Once the first assessment has been completed we take the view that the designer has the
information they need to achieve a compliant design. We do appreciate that changes
happen and that these may influence designs, however, it is very common for multiple
assessment tasks to be undertaken before approval is granted.

Ensure that all non-compliant issues identified are addressed. If you are unclear
regarding any of the comments made please contact the relevant Engineer for
clarification and we will be pleased to help. Equally if the requested change cannot be
accommodated, please provide explanation within a covering letter, so we don’t
assume it’s been overlooked

Ensure that all elements of the design are amended. As an example an issue maybe
identified on a layout plan, but the changes do not follow through to the long sections
or the calculations, leading to an inconsistent design.

Highlight the changes that have been made to address any issues raised. A covering
letter should always be provided to explain any amendments and highlighted/clouded
areas on the drawings are an excellent way of drawing attention to changes that have
been made. Changes that are not made as a result of our Engineer’s comments
should also be highlighted in the same way.

It is also helpful if we are aware at an early stage that the adoptable sewers are to be
divided into multiple Section 104 agreements. We appreciate that it is often easier to
submit all the sewers as one design; however, we need to be aware that you require
multiple Section 104 agreements before costs estimates and first lists are generated.

To assist with this we have added an extra box to the Section 104 application form and if
you require more than one agreement please add a yes to the box.

If you would like to discuss the contents of this document or any other issues, please
contact one of our Drainage Managers: