Massachusetts Fueling Station Installs Storm Water Management System

The city of Attleboro, Mass. received more than $11 million in federal, state and municipal funding to redevelop and revitalize the city’s downtown industrial and commercial parcels into areas of mixed use that will include commercial, recreational and residential sites. The Attleboro Fueling Depot is a new modern fueling station that will provide access for all municipal vehicles and trucks, bus parking for GATRA vehicles and a place to store sand, salt, mulch, hydrants, piping curbing and other materials used regularly by the Department of Public Works – Highway Div. Under the renewal plan, the depot was required by city officials to relocate from 77 Park Street to 101 Lamb Street to open up a key plot for construction of the revitalized downtown area.

The site at 101 Lamb Street was previously occupied by the APCO-Mossberg industrial manufacturing facility from 1917 until 1987, when the building burned to its foundation. Since the then-property owner took no action to secure the site, it became a health and safety hazard with soils containing high levels of petroleum contaminants. Prior to breaking ground for the project in January 2014, these contaminants were removed and the rest of the existing fill remained on site.

As part of the new construction, contractors from J. H. Lynch & Sons Inc. and engineers from Waterfield Design Group Inc. collaborated to design an effective storm water management system. Prior to this project, storm water runoff would flow directly off the site and into the city’s storm water system. The new system combines Cultec Inc. subsurface chambers along with a number of other storm water management practices including catch basins, manholes and HDPE and concrete pipe to provide retention to the new site. Approximately 44% of total suspended solids are removed by the catch basins prior to the storm water being directed into the Cultec units, which eliminates 80% of suspended solids. This was done to meet Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection 2008 Stormwater Handbook Requirements.

The project designers originally considered using an aboveground retention system, but because it would ultimately take up too much land, engineers instead chose Cultec’s Recharger V8HD as the model would provide the required 43,750 cu ft of storage without sacrificing a lot of space.

“The first challenge we faced was the high groundwater,” said Jacob R. Murray, senior civil engineer at Waterfield Design Group. “Our team wanted to use the largest subsurface chamber that would fit in order to provide the maximum amount of storage but still use the smallest footprint. We utilized the HydroCAD Stormwater Modeling System to easily generate a proposed storm water system layout and design and determined Cultec’s Recharger V8HD would meet all of the project requirements.”

A total of 389 units were installed, providing the site with 43,779 cu ft of storage when surrounded by stone. The V8HD model measures 32 in. high, 60 in. wide, has an installed length of 7.5 ft and a bare chamber capacity of 8.7 cu ft per ln ft.

The chambers are located beneath the access driveway to the salt and sand storage sheds—a safe distance away from the actual structure itself in order to spare the chambers the extra weight load and to ensure easier access to the chambers if necessary. Engineers also had to accommodate for the presence of several light pole footings located in the chamber path. Finally, staying away from the floodplain and protecting the existing wetlands was a priority throughout the project.

“While the chambers are not under the shed, we still had to plan for heavy trucks that will regularly drive over the site as well as dead loads such as concrete waste blocks that would be piled on top of the system. That made Cultec’s H20 design a key component when we were evaluating and choosing a system as it is able to withstand that heavy weight,” Murray said.

The installation of the chambers took approximately two weeks from start to finish and was completed in June 2014.

Source: Cultec Inc.