Dunleith Lane
Drainage System
Cody Binder and Justin Lyle
ET 493
Senior Design
Advisor: Mohamed Zeidan
&Edward Rode
Construction
10/1/2014
Abstract
As a homeowner, proper drainage is very important. Improper drainage systems
can cause numerous troubles and even cost homeowners money from damages if
overlooked. This makes designing drainage systems in new construction and
maintaining drainage systems in pre-existing areas an important objective.
Project Description
Phase 1 (Fall 2014):
For our project, we will be working on correcting the current drainage problems in a subdivision
in Mandeville, Louisiana called Twin Oaks. The main goal of the first semester will be to
establish exactly what is causing the drainage problems.
The current observed issues with the drainage system are:

Standing water in ditches in front of houses

Water backing up in main drainage ditch into homeowners back yards
To find out what the problem is we will be conducting a survey on the surrounding area to
establish why the water is deviating in the wrong areas and not draining into the correct path.
We will also give detailed drawings with locations of exacting structures, drains and the
elevations that were taken from the survey.
Phase 2 (Spring 2014):
For the second phase of our project we will use the information collected from the first
semester to try and establish a solution to the drainage problem. To begin, we will conduct
research in the fields of hydrology and hydrodynamics to establish if the drainage systems will
withstand the rainfall in the area. To use the formulas from hydrodynamics and hydrology, we
will be required to take field measurements on the current cross sectional areas of the ditches.
In addition to this, it will help us establish new design elements. We will perform a
neighborhood survey, to pinpoint exact problem areas. This will be taken into account when
establishing a new system. Then we will establish possible effective solutions to fixing the
drainage problems. Next, we will begin drafting the plans for the possible solutions. After the
plans have been established, we will begin estimating and scheduling the possible solutions.
After taking all of this into account, we will decide on a final solution to correcting the
problems.
Phase 1(Deliverables)

Surveying the neighborhood with surveying tools
 Create Drawings of the neighborhood
Methodology of Survey
To begin the survey we used a transit, measuring rod, a transit tripod and measuring tape. The
homeowners association provided us with the as-built drawings of the drainage system that
was done in 2000. By performing this survey, we could obtain the current elevations of the
drainage and compare it with the elevations of the original drainage system. We went into the
subdivision and set up our transit and transit tripod. Once the transit was wet up, we then had
to level the transit completely to give us accurate elevations that we could us in our drawing
comparison. One of use would go set up in the same spots that the as-built drawing had
elevations on and hold the measuring rod. After obtaining the shots, we would then write them
onto our preliminary drawings that we had established. Later we had to first convert all of the
shots that were shot from different benchmarks to the same scale. This was done by shooting
numerous shots on the same spots, but from different benchmarks. When you have two
readings from one spot with two different benchmark, you can then use the difference
between the two to put them into the same scale. Next to transfer the shots into elevation
readings we had to assume an elevation from one spot. We used an elevation taken on the
road from the as-built drawing. The road elevation was the best spot to assume because the
elevation has not changed. From the original assumption, we were then able to establish
elevations for all of the shots we took into the field. After looking over the as-built drawings
and the current drawings, we were able to see that many of the slopes in the drainage have
flattened out.
Methodology of creating the drawings
In order to effectively conduct a survey, we would first need a set of preliminary drawings. The
preliminary drawings would act as a set of field prints that were really rough, but were still clear
enough for us to conduct all of our calculations and allow us to accurately label elevations. In
order to obtain our drawings, we used large tracing drawings paper to trace the original
drawings. The tools we used were a pencil, a straight edge and a protractor. By tracing the
original drawings, we were able to get an accurate portrayal of the neighborhood and also the
drawing would be on scale. After transferring all of our shots on our preliminary drawings, we
then traced another cleaner and detailed version of our original drawings. This copy was more
aesthetically pleasing and would clearly display all of the elevations that we had taken from the
survey. The final copy will also help us explain how the drainage system is supposed to function.
The last drawing we did was of a sketch of one of our problem areas. One of the problem areas
was outside of the neighborhood and to help explain the problem we created a detailed sketch.
Problem Areas
After conducting our survey and doing basic analysis on the subdivision’s drainage system. We
were able to point out several problem areas. These areas could easily be the causes for the
problems that are occurring in the subdivision. The first problem area are the ditches in the
front of the yards. The front ditches hold water after rain. One of the main reasons for this
problem is that the slopes of these ditches have eroded in many spots and instead of flowing in
the correct direction, in many spots the water just sits. Another problem we have seen is that
many of the culverts underneath driveways have been partially blocked from erosion. The
design of the drainage is supposed to take all of the water from the front yards and move it to a
larger ditch behind the lots of many of the residents. The ditches in the back yards also are a
problem area. When it rains these ditches back up into the back yards of the residents. The
ditches to begin with are way to flat and at a glance don’t even resemble a ditch. If you were to
examine some of the elevations taken in the ditches, it has increasing and decreasing slopes,
which does not match the required slopes stated in the as-built drawings.` The ditches are also
very grown up. After talking to one of the residents, we learned that there has never been any
kind of clearing of the shrubbery around the ditches. The last problem area we have noticed are
the ditches by the end of the driveway were all of the drainage from the neighborhood is
supposed to drain into the city drainage by the highway. This entire area is sunk way below the
ditches themselves and acts as a sink hole that holds standing water for long periods of time.
Problem Areas Photos
Plan View
Phase 2(Spring 2015) Schedule

1/22-Research on hydrology & hydrodynamics

2/1-Take field measurements of cross sectional areas of ditches

2/27-Proposal

3/2-Perform neighborhood survey

3/19-Begin brainstorming solutions

4/1-Establish most effective solutions

4/7-Draft plans for solutions

4/21-Estimate costs of solutions

4/28-Establish most cost effective solution to problem

5/5-Final Presentation