Stormwater Control:

Street and Highway

Drainage and Culverts
 Design Considerations
 Inthe design of highway pavement drainage, two of
the more significant variables are the frequency of
the runoff event for design and the spread of water
(design spread) on the pavement during the design
event. The following summarizes the major
considerations in the selection of design frequency
and design spread:
 Classification of the highway
 Design speed of the highway
 Projected traffic volumes
 Rainfall intensities
 Capital costs
 Hazards and nuisances to pedestrian traffic
The rational formula

 where the peak runoff rate Q is in ft3/s (m3/s),  K is

1.0 in U.S. customary units (0.28 for SI units),  C is the
runoff coefficient
 i is the average rainfall intensity in in/hr (mm/hr) from intensity-duration
frequency relationships for a specific return period and duration tc in min,
and
 A is the area of the tributary drainage area in acres (km2). The duration is taken as
the time of concentration tc of the drainage area.
kinematic wave equation

 tc is the time of concentration in seconds  L is

the overland flow length in feet (m)  n is
Manning’s roughness coefficient
 i is the rainfall intensity, in/hr (m/hr)
 S is the average slope of the overland flow area  K = 56
(26.285)
 To determine the flow time in a gutter, the average velocity in the gutter must
be determined.
EXAMPLE
 Use the kinematic wave formula to determine the time of concentration for a
small drainage area that has a length of overland flow of 150 ft (45.72 m) and an
average overland slope of 0.02 ft/ft (m/m) for a rainfall rate of 3.6 in/hr (0.091
m/hr). The drainage area is a turf (n = 0.4).
 Alternatively, the time of concentration using the kinematic wave equation in
SI units is
 Determine the time of concentration for an overland flow length of 100 m, on a
turf surface (n= 0.4) with
 an average slope of 0.02. Use a rainfall rate of 10 cm/hr.

 Using equation (16.1.1) with K=26.285, we get

 Alternatively, in U.S. customary units,
FORMULAS
Flow in Gutters
A pavement gutter conveys water during a storm event by collecting overland flow
along its length
and concentrating the flow as channel flow, the elemental gutter flow dQ
through an elemental cross-section dx of the gutter is
Stormwater Control: Street and
Highway Drainage and Culverts
 For small values of Sx, equation (16.1.4) can be approximated by
 By integrating equation (16.1.6) across the cross-section of the gutter as y goes
from 0 to d, the gutter
 flow can be expressed as
 where f is 0.56 (U.S. customary units) or 0.375 for SI units;  Q
is the discharge, ft3/s (m3/s)
 Tw is the top width of flow (spread) in feet (m);  Sx is
the cross-slope, ft/ft (m/m);
 and S is the longitudinal slope, ft/ft (m/m).