Every week is "Infrastructure Week" in a warming world.

Case in point: The Lake Azzure (sic) apartment complex in Hillsborough County. In case that's behind a paywall, the parking lot in the apartment complex has been flooded to knee-deep levels since Debby passed through weeks ago. The reason?

“Multiple pipe failures within the apartment complex’s outfall system are contributing to the flooding,” Josh Bellotti, the Director of Engineering & Operations for Hillsborough County said in a statement. One source of the problem is a blocked drain that runs under Himes Avenue.

Beneath much of Florida's developed landscape lies a network of pipes designed to move stormwater from where it's unwanted to someplace less problematic, usually "retention ponds."

I was unaware of the size and extent of this network until a hole opened up in one of the parking lots at my former condo complex. We asked our professional engineering firm to investigate and tell us what was happening and how to fix it. That's where I got an education in drainage.

Although the crack that grew into a hole in the parking lot wasn't anywhere near a "storm drain," it was located above an area where two pipes met in a "vault," a large concrete structure shaped like a cube that coupled two drain pipes, five feet in diameter. One of the pipes had become partially detached from the vault and soils were entering the pipe through the opening, undermining the paved area above it.

(It just occurred to me that I have photos from that event. I'll post one above. Good thing I hadn't deleted all my old emails from the engineer. They gave me the date to look for in Photos.)

A large project ensued to excavate the area and repair the connection, which involved getting a new vault. It was rather expensive as I recall, though not beyond our capacity to pay for it, obviously.

Bryan Busse, our engineer, recommended that we inspect all the piping, which we did. Fortunately, that was the only problem area. But it's the kind of thing you need to inspect with some periodicity, maybe every five years or so, to make sure you aren't developing a problem.

As a condominium, we owned the stormwater management system on the property. These large gated communities everywhere in Florida own their stormwater management systems, though this often comes as surprise to them when, after decades of neglect, they begin to fail and they start to complain to the county. (Looking at you, Marsh Landing.)

Anyway, "The more you know..." as they say.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:42 Thursday, 29 August 2024