By Donald Herbert
Located on the Newington, CT, town line is a large parcel of land that was developed in the early 1990s, the Newington Power Center. It has been performing poorly for over a decade despite housing several large retail stores. But things are now changing for the better: the Newington Power Center is filling up with new establishments.
The design of the plaza is not a typical mall layout. It’s in a low lying area below the Berlin Turnpike. The previous owners of the property had installed three manmade ponds to handle stormwater runoff, but with all the changes happening aboveground at the Center, the entire site needed an environmental upgrade.
Fuss & O’Neill Inc. (Manchester, CT) is the consulting engineering firm working on the project. Andrew Carrier, project manager, sought out CONTECH’s expertise to ensure that the new system design would meet all permitting standards set by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection (CT DEP) by providing the proper documentation for the project submittal package.
Available space was limited. By moving stormwater detention underground, design engineers were able to maximize the land and provide the necessary parking spaces for the new stores. One of the manmade ponds was filled and replaced with an underground corrugated metal pipe (CMP) detention system.
The CMP detention system is the largest of its kind installed in the state. It handles stormwater runoff from the properties northwest of the Berlin Turnpike, as well as the adjacent plaza properties.
The flow rates had to be accurately matched to the preexisting pond area. “Part of the site development process includes proving that what you’re doing is not affecting anything downstream or upstream,” said Carrier. “The new system had to be modeled so that people living in the area would not be adversely affected by stormwater associated with the development.”
Carrier added, “We’re putting pipe in place of one of the ponds, so the pond had to be drained. We needed to make sure it was no longer accepting flow before the CMP could go in the ground.”
The base for the detention system had to meet all geotechnical requirements, and despite a challenging permitting process, the site preparation for the system was a success. This was no small feat for a system that requires 6,000 linear feet of 72" CMP.
Because of the sheer size of the detention system, the CONTECH Construction Products’ Pipe Mobile Production Vehicle (MPV) was employed. The PIPE MPV is a self-supporting factory that produces CMP in a variety of sizes. It can be quickly deployed to a site and put into production. It was ideal in this situation because of the site’s restricted traffic patterns.
Once on site, the pipe manufacturing progressed quickly enough to allow pipe installation within four hours. “It’s the most cost-efficient way to produce 72" pipe in 50' lengths,” said Carrier. “The cost to produce elsewhere and ship to the site would be incrementally more.”
With the additional clearing and paved areas required, stormwater treatment was incorporated into the site. Nine VortSentry hydrodynamic separators from CONTECH Stormwater Solutions were installed to treat the site’s runoff. Ideally suited as pretreatment devices, the systems separate solids prior to discharging flows into the preexisting pond and new detention system, easing maintenance requirements.
The small footprint of the VortSentry made it an effective treatment option for the Newington project since space was at a premium and efficiency was critical.
The site is scheduled for grand opening in the fall of 2008.
About the Author:
Donald Herbert is a senior regional sales engineer with CONTECH Construction Products. He can be contacted via e-mail at: [email protected]
