Water pooling at 240: An update (March 24)

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Here’s an update on the issue of water pooling during heavy rain in front of the 240 building, first covered here.

A pipe to nowhere

Council VP Jeff did more exploratory work in the area and uncovered some interesting things.

The first is a small pipe that goes from underneath the north planter in front of the building entrance to…nowhere.

It was apparently intended to feed into the drain shown in the shot below, but as you can see, it doesn’t line up with the drain at all (the other pipe partly exposed is tied to the irrigation system).

A pipe that doesn’t actually connect to the drain.

At its starting point, the pipe is not connected to anything and was 100% clogged full of dirt. Since this pipe is normally buried and does not connect to anything, it would have been impossible to keep it from clogging as designed.

The pipe ends somewhere in the narrow gap in the Allan blocks.

The solution: Giving the pipe a purpose

The solution to this was the following:

  • Install a larger piece of PVC pipe
  • Connect the PVC pipe to the drain
  • Extend the PVC pipe under the planter and connect it to a curved piece of PVC pipe that can collect and direct the water to the drain
Step 1: Connect larger PVC pipe directly to the drain
Step 2: Direct the new PVC pipe through the planter and out to the other side
Step 3: Cap off the pipe before drilling holes and applying river stone
Step 4: The cap now has holes to allow water entry. River stone has been placed around the cap to allow water into the new PVC pipe

The other side: Strange connections

The pipe on the north side had additional holes drilled into it and was also capped off similar to the south planter. The area will be filled with river stone when complete.

River stone will be added.

The configuration of the above pipe is rather odd:

  • The end that points to the courtyard quickly dead-ends
  • The other end appears to run to the edge of the building, where it turns up and connects to a down spout. This means that water coming down the down spout will exit out onto the area in front of the 240 building–not ideal. Jeff thinks there may be a T-pipe that is buried under the planter that is intended to direct the water to the underground parking drainage. If this is the case, that T-pipe is likely plugged (and there is no way to access it without digging).

Generally, the construction of the pipes and drains in front of the 240 building was done in a haphazard manner. Drains should not be in the planters at all and obviously all pipes should connect, not just dead end. Jeff’s fixes should provide adequate relief when heavy rains occur, until proper drains and pipes can be installed as part of Phase 2 of the membrane replacement project.

The north planter, all tidied up and ready for the next big storm.

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