Storm Water System Alleviates Flooding for Canadian Wal-Mart
As Wal-Mart undergoes an expansion to transform its Grand Prairie, Canada, location into a Super Center, a major part of the renovation is focusing on reevaluating the existing storm water management practices to resolve flooding issues on site.
The project called for an additional 44,000 sq ft expansion to the west of the existing Wal-Mart, situated on a 14.8-acre site, and included new parking areas. The engineers, Counterpoint Engineering and E2K, decided to use a plastic storm water chamber system manufactured by Cultec, a provider of storm water and septic solutions, to address the existing flood issue and improve the emergency overland flow route.
Cultec’s system, constructed of 175 Recharger V8HD units, provided a storage volume of approximately 16,390 cu ft. The chamber provided the largest amount of storage for this project, while also offering the smallest footprint. It is 32 in. high and 60 in. wide and can hold a minimum of about 100 cu ft of water, with a bare chamber capacity of 8.68 cubic feet per linear foot.
“In our opinion, the Cultec system is very useful in that it allows for storm water storage below grade without wasting precious above grade land,” said Brad Ellingwood, owner of E2K. “It naturally filters runoff from the surface, which would eventually make its way to the groundwater table.”
According to Michelle Zwick, staff engineer for Cultec, the discharge flows prior to the expansion were 8.5 gallons per second (32 liters per second).
Source: Cultec press release
