Designing Stormwater Systems for Construction and Whole of Life Considerations

Detailed stormwater design can often overlook important construction considerations including include safety of construction, other services, and integration with other design elements. Whole of life asset management and maintenance requirements (including safety) should also be considered in the design process.

If construction and whole of life requirements are not considered during the design process it can lead to either construction difficulties or long-term asset management issues. The risks are additional construction costs, redesigning under pressure situations, under performance of the asset due to unfulfilled maintenance, unexpected asset upgrades within the expected design life and safety issues during construction and operations.

This paper firstly presents a number of issues and approaches to design that should be considered when undertaking detailed stormwater design. Secondly, the paper presents a number of examples of construction difficulties and their solutions. The paper is based on information obtained both through research and the experience of the authors.