Taking taxis, the amazing train system, and walking around Dubai you can’t really stop looking at all of the buildings that have been built over the last few years.  But me with my Civil Engineering background, I like to see how some of the infrastructure works.  I started to look all over the place for things to take pictures of.  I think it was just way too hot to really get the cameras out and take photos like I thought I would.  While walking in the harsh desert heat we were pretty much looking for the next chilly building to escape the sun.  Here are a couple pictures of sewer grates.  Nothing special but not something you probably see posted on the internet.

I wonder when I will find the crazy drainage stuff I took pictures of while in South East Asia?

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This isn’t the first time this has happened, but since we are on a tight deadline I wanted to mention that we generally are sending large files back and forth.  We don’t get the bounced or full email notices until a day or two later.  They even start to look like spam with their funny message titles.  In this situation we were cutting it close to a planning deadline.  Our email server has no limit for this very reason, and we have plenty of space.  I think we might start using yousendit more frequently as that is a good option for storing email attachments.  FTP seems a bit too complicated to setup for each client and is not a secure method to transmit files.

I just want to say again we work hard to meet everyones deadlines, and in this case we are doing whatever it takes to not let this client down.

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We went to a new job site in Redondo Beach to discuss the lot for two new houses that will overlook the ocean.  While talking to the developer we went over a few different stormwater mitigation measures that are starting to pop up in Los Angeles County.  The South Bay beach cities are a bit different than Los Angeles City standards, but the general idea is the same.  Infiltrate and clean stormwater when possible.  Now that the new Los Angeles City codes (LID/SUSMP) are starting to trickle down into other cities I went to Redondo Beach Building and Safety to clarify what they would need for a grading plan or drainage plan.

After speaking with a Redondo Beach City Engineering, the Civil Engineering involved for handling stormwater depends on where the site is located.  Turns out our site falls where we don’t need to do any stormwater cleaning or infiltration.  That was great news.  But what about another project that will be starting up in a month or so that is a commercial complex?  I was given the new standards and these new standards basically follow the new Los Angeles City LID requirements.  We must infiltrate when possible.  If infiltration is not feasible, then there are some other methods to contain a certain volume of stormwater on site.

This new method of handling stormwater is not exactly new.  But the cities in Los Angeles are starting to adopt the new measures.  Even though this can make designing a site a little more tricky, this is good for the environment to help sustain Southern California just a little bit longer.

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I was holding off on mentioning this until we submitted our large mixed use project on Lankershim, North Hollywood.  I was crossing my fingers as we went to meet with the plan checker at Los Angeles Building and Safety on the 7th floor.  He looked over the plans in a lot of detail and said they look good and were approved.  We didn’t get those planned approved through the Stormwater section over the counter.  But that was more on the account that they wanted a formal submittal.  So we will see if we can continue this streak.  We are proud of being able to draw up a set of plans to quickly meet any of our client’s deadlines and get them approved faster than anyone else I have heard of.  In fact we have taken on projects that other companies straight out won’t touch because the deadlines are too fast.  As long as we have the survey and siteplan I can generally tell you exactly how many days something will take, and we can normally beat that original timing given out.

Next up is a project from the past coming back to life over near The Getty on Sepulveda.  This is a a pretty large single family home that the owner will be redoing inside and out.  The big issue on the site is a matter of an illegally built wall built by the neighbor on the wrong property.  This unpermitted wall has been falling over and holds up a sewer main.  So we are going to design a new retaining wall below and fill in between both walls.  There will be some other tricky designs such as getting a large backyard into a pump to drain out to Sepulveda.  The alternative would be connecting to the storm drain directly, but the cost involved with closing off a major street and trenching said street to the other side would be way too expensive.

In the not so distant future we will be working on a nearly impossible multiple home site on Mulholland overlooking the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory.  We have been working on getting a road to work up the hillside.  Our Civil Engineering firm, B+W Engineering and Design, has been growing slowly but surely, and we look forward to start working on some more complicated to nearly impossible jobs in the future.

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The latest project involving Civil Engineering will be working on grading plans in Los Angeles for the developer, Chandler Partners.  The project is called Lankershim NoHo Mixed Use, and is more specifically in North Hollywood in the NoHo Arts District 4 blocks away from the MTA Redline Subway Station.  The first part of the project will be demolishing multiple buildings sitting between Fair Ave., Otsego St., and Lankershim Blvd. in Los Angeles.  From there a new 5 story complex will be built.  The whole property ties into those 3 streets which makes placement of the building more critical than normal.  There will also be a street widening taking place.

This will be our first project in Los Angeles that uses the new LID requirements on something that is not small residential.  To meet the new more strict stormwater guidelines, we will propose planter boxes to collect the stormwater.  The new LID requirements want us to take an area of the roof and to build roughly 5.5% of that roof area as planter boxes in the ground.  The water will collect into these planter boxes which act like a pool.  The water is able to infiltrate the soil and stay on site as much as possible.  If the storm is too big, these planter boxes will overflow into a pipe that will lead to the street through the curb face.  The difference between a larger project in Los Angeles compared to the smaller residential is that the area of planter boxes needed is greater.  This has also been changed from the previous SUSMP requirement where the area required was less.  More stormwater being held on site helps with cutting down on water going into the storm drain system.  This also allows more stormwater to be clarified through the planter boxes and any water eventually reaching the storm drain system is much cleaner.

Civil Engineers do not have too much to work with regarding Green Codes and LEED.  But underneath almost every new project in Los Angeles Civil Engineers are quietly and almost invisibly making storm water much more clean.  Most people do not know that the storm drain system leads directly to the ocean unfiltered.  That is why there are blue stamps on storm drain catch basins and inlets saying do not dump dirty water into the storm drain.  In the end this clean stormwater reaches the ocean and is much better for the community as our ocean water and beaches can be slightly less contaminated.  Civil Engineer’s greening of new construction may not be pretty, but civil engineering is responsible for making our future a little bit brighter.

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I decided to stop by the site today to get some pictures of the site’s progress.  The site has been a demolished building for some time.  Seeing that building is up and the contractors are starting the fine grading is great to see.  We had some calls recently to double check the specs of the infiltration system we designed.  One reason I really like working with Chandler Partners is that everyone works together, especially asking questions to check everyones’ work.

The site was first rough graded using our excavation plan.  The excavation was able to be done without shoring.  We used a 1:1 cut slope to dig out the underground parking.  In some places we used a maximum 5′  vertical cut as the building was pretty close to property boundaries and buildings.  After the site was rough graded to the excavation plan the building went up.

Currently the surrounding dirt facing the property lines is rough graded, as the contractor is beginning to install the infiltration system.  The infiltration system consists of stormwater running over grass, then going to a series of catch basins and then flowing into a 36″ Perforated PVC pipe that can infiltrate into the ground.  If the 36″ Perforated PVC pipe fills up then there is an overflow built in that will gravity flow the water into the street.  One of the city requirements was to direct as much stormwater into Florence, as Regent Street was already flooding.  We decided to bring all of the roof water into this same system to try to manage as much water onto Florence as possible.  Smaller storms will contain almost the entire storm on site.

Once the infiltration system is in place the contractors can finish up with the fine grading and new driveway entrances.  This project is another fine piece of Civil Engineering work to better the community.

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What a pleasant surprise to see the building completed, parking lot regraded, and all the drainage devices in place.  But really I was like a kid in the candy shop when I spotted the cars parked inside.  This project has been one of my most favorite projects I have worked on in my career, as I went into engineering purely based on looking at the Acura NSX while in school.  As I started college at UC Irvine, I would always see Ferraris and Lamborghinis driving around the campus area.  From that point on I have been a fan of Formula1, racing, and cars in general.  This project was something special, almost bringing a tear to my eye.  The Architect was great to work with and he also designs the interior spaces for a lot of the exotic car shops in Southern California.  Go figure that myself, my partner and he all went to High School together.  I think most people can appreciate fine Italian Exotic cars, and I know all of us were excited to work together on this site.

So what did we do on this project?  We had the chance to regrade the parking lot.  But not just any regrade, we needed to keep as much of the existing as possible to make this site cost efficient;  a typical requirement on every Civil Engineering project that we take on.  I also try to design based on low cars driving around and this would be my chance where this would make even more sense than usual.  We kept the drainage pattern nearly the same.  Though we did have to adjust portions to make the ADA walkways and ADA parking stalls to have the maximum 2% in all directions.  That was very difficult to work out between the front door to the ADA walkway going to the sidewalk.  Once the walkway worked with the parking stalls we added a new curb and gutter to the side of the driveway fronting the street.  That curb and gutter would lead to a catch basin that would flow about half of the site through pipes outletting into the street’s storm drain system.

On the front of the property we removed some of the existing swales to keep the ADA paths as smooth as possible.  I would have preferred to completely remove all of the swales in the way of parking cars, but we were able to minimize the brutal existing drainage layout.  Brutal as in driving a cushy car over the existing swales would make the car hop up and down.  Now its possible to get into a parking spot without going over one of those swales.  The other driveway entrance was regraded to smooth everything out.  We decided to use the existing downspouts and have them outlet directly onto the driveways.  No need to have some complicated system to drain under the parking lot, like we would design for an area with purely pedestrian traffic.

Onto the back of the property a ramp was created as one of the existing loading docks would not be used.  There would also be a proposed wash off area that needed to separate the stormwater from the dirty water.  This can sometimes be tricky as stormwater is not allowed to enter the sewer system, and dirty water isn’t allowed to enter the storm drain system.  Not to mention that this loading dock area had some really crazy grades to make a truck able to back in.  So we tied into the flattest parts of the back driveway and regraded to flatten the pad out.  Another issue that popped up was an existing pump that took out all of the stormwater out of the low points.  This grate on top of the pump became our tie in elevation.  After tying everything together we needed a way to separate the areas of the water.  So we created a minimal swale between the parking and wash area.  The end result was executed perfectly.  I got a chance to see the swale in action.  The wash area goes into a trench drain, then into a clarifier that cleans out the junk as much as possible and then goes into the sewer system.

After seeing the completed project I am very happy to see everything built to our design.  I got to quickly walk through the building and know I had the biggest smile on my face during this unexpected site visit.  Thank you to the service manager for letting me walk through the building instead of around to take pictures.  The inside is spotless.

12►

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The latest building, The Wilshire Grand Hotel, to be unveiled is by the developer, Korean Air.  The $1 Billion project in Downtown Los Angeles has been on the drawing board for the last few years.  And recently the final renderings have been released to the public.  And what a beauty this building is.  At 73 stories tall, the Wilshire Grand Hotel will stand taller than the current tallest building West of Chicago 72 story US Bank building.

The site is located at Wilshire Blvd and Figueroa Street.  The completion date is set for 2017 with demolition already started on the 1950′s era Wilshire Grand.  The most interesting idea about this building is that the check-in lobby will be located on floor 70.  I can only imagine the excitement as you enter the building and get whisked away to the top to start your stay.  A 71st floor restaurant will add to the amazing views of Los Angeles while you eat.  Not only has Downtown Los Angeles development gotten off to a great start this year, but the engineering involved will surely be a technical feat.  I am very excited to see the excavation and grading work.

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Research engineers are coming up with ways to manipulate concrete.  One way is by using self cleaning concrete on areas that are heavily trafficked.  Not only will the space look clean, but harsh chemicals and wasteful cleaning will become a thing of the past.  The concrete can also be used to grow edible mass on.  Just think one day we will be able to eat directly off of a wall.  This concrete would not only be useful as a function for daily human consumption, but the concrete can also be used to look more appealing.  As engineers continue to push technology, going green will be something that is highly visible in our everyday lives.

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We get asked quite a bit what the infiltration standard is and what permeable pavers look like.  Most know that permeable pavers are something like grass-crete with blocks of concrete with space in between the blocks, generally filled with grass, used to drain stormwater.  The attached picture shows the current Los Angeles City standard section for permeable pavers, which is one of the options a small scale residential project can implement to meet the LID requirements.

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