I work on many roadway improvment projects, which of course include highway drainage. In my company, the highway group is "running things" for a certain project for the state DOT. To do drainage, as you know, you must first delineate areas, figure flow to inlets, check spread, design sizing and pipe material for adequate cover, and lastly make sure the structures do not go flying off during the design storm (HGL). But we all know this, right?
Okay, so our highway guy tells me that the main road's geometrics are finalized. But the side streets are not. This was an urban area with about 9 or 10 side streets flowing into or out of the main roadway. So we made assumptions (with his guesses) on the side streets and proceeded to design the drainage for the main road and put two inlets at the bottom of side streets, like you usually see.
Problem was, where we assumed normal crown, he ended up superelevating in some areas. Our pipe cover was always good because he was told to raise the roadway, but not lower it. Design was done over and over again. Sometimes inlets on the main road had to be moved closer to the side street because the by-pass we estimated was off. Then draiange area boundaries had to be modified, pipes had to be shortened and so on.
Next phase - same thing. New road added to contract. This road had a culvert to be replaced under it. Two weeks before the submission, the highway dude give me a "working surface" in Inroads that I should be able to use to do my design (no profiles, no typicals, no grades, just a working surface). I delineated areas for SWM using the working surface, but everytime I went into the network to access the surface, I found that it had changed since the last time I had delineated. In the mean time the draiange area maps were done over and over again.
Fast forward - the highway dude could not even finish his highway work before the original deadline, so it was postponed a week - at which time, we were to told to hurry up and finish our design. Three days before the new deadline, I was again redelineating areas and modifying draiange area maps fo rthe umpteenth time. So many hours....so much money....And the day before the deadline, I was finally able to get around to designing the culvert - since I finallly had real elevations on the roadway.
I worked my butt off and we got our stuff in one day late. But there were many mistakes that I hope the client does not see. This is because we were forced to do an entire stormdrain and culvert design in maybe three days. And when I say "we", I mean "me". I'm the only person who knew how to do everything on the job, so I had my hands in all of it, which meant I was responsible for all of it (except maybe some CADD work and a Report)
Is this fair? In my last company, I never was asked to even touch drainage until highway geometrics were set and approved of. My current supervisor says this is how every job is...
Which is it? Do we design drainage alongside of and concurrently with the highway design? Or is it one totally after the other?
Okay, so our highway guy tells me that the main road's geometrics are finalized. But the side streets are not. This was an urban area with about 9 or 10 side streets flowing into or out of the main roadway. So we made assumptions (with his guesses) on the side streets and proceeded to design the drainage for the main road and put two inlets at the bottom of side streets, like you usually see.
Problem was, where we assumed normal crown, he ended up superelevating in some areas. Our pipe cover was always good because he was told to raise the roadway, but not lower it. Design was done over and over again. Sometimes inlets on the main road had to be moved closer to the side street because the by-pass we estimated was off. Then draiange area boundaries had to be modified, pipes had to be shortened and so on.
Next phase - same thing. New road added to contract. This road had a culvert to be replaced under it. Two weeks before the submission, the highway dude give me a "working surface" in Inroads that I should be able to use to do my design (no profiles, no typicals, no grades, just a working surface). I delineated areas for SWM using the working surface, but everytime I went into the network to access the surface, I found that it had changed since the last time I had delineated. In the mean time the draiange area maps were done over and over again.
Fast forward - the highway dude could not even finish his highway work before the original deadline, so it was postponed a week - at which time, we were to told to hurry up and finish our design. Three days before the new deadline, I was again redelineating areas and modifying draiange area maps fo rthe umpteenth time. So many hours....so much money....And the day before the deadline, I was finally able to get around to designing the culvert - since I finallly had real elevations on the roadway.
I worked my butt off and we got our stuff in one day late. But there were many mistakes that I hope the client does not see. This is because we were forced to do an entire stormdrain and culvert design in maybe three days. And when I say "we", I mean "me". I'm the only person who knew how to do everything on the job, so I had my hands in all of it, which meant I was responsible for all of it (except maybe some CADD work and a Report)
Is this fair? In my last company, I never was asked to even touch drainage until highway geometrics were set and approved of. My current supervisor says this is how every job is...
Which is it? Do we design drainage alongside of and concurrently with the highway design? Or is it one totally after the other?