Posted on 03/27/2009 2:38:05 PM PDT by ml/nj
All of the Storm Drain Grates on my street have been replaced. There was nothing wrong with the old ones that I could tell. But they didn't have the admonition, "DUMP NO WASTE / DRIANS TO WATERWAY" in raised letters in the iron or whatever it is they use to make these things.
I discovered this only today, because today was the first day this year that the weather permitted an outside cigar walk. They repaved the street sometime and it was probably during this project that the new grates were installed. Pictures below:
(The new one is the one on the left if it isn't obvious.)
I wonder where the town fathers thought we thought the water drained to! Politicians are all so brilliant and we are all so stupid.
ML/NJ
And finally one more possiblity...
An engineer for the city somewhere determined that the old grate was undersized for the hundred year storm data and decided to replace it with a larger one that satisfies the code requirements.
My street is on a hill. At the bottom of the hill they did install a double grate. If that were all they had done I wouldn't have begun this thread.
ML/NJ
BINGO!
“...after a big storm the water backs up onto the street and into your basement. “
And then, after the Government makes you pay to install mandatory moisture monitoring systems in your house, they can fine you for the flood.
[I suppose I’m being sarcastic... but these days nothing seems too far out for the Nanny State.]
Those new drains are designed poorly. I remember when I was a kid, I could roll a baseball into the drain; now, look at them.
All the manhole covers on my street say "Made in India."
-PJ
Years ago, my brother was walking through a K-Mart parking lot. There was an old heap, its engine parked over a storm drain, and its owner apparantly inside buying oil. The drain plug was sitting by the front wheel. He is no enviro-nut at all, but this went beyond his even limits.
He kicked the drain plug into the drain, and walked away.
Talking manhole covers. Interesting.
The same reason Castro gave 4 hour speeches: he's a sadist.
Don’t like engineers do you. The guys in the plant always know better than the engineer.
But It looks like maybe you are wrong. The engineer, that would be a hydraulic civil engineer, was tasked with studying the drainage for a hundred year flood and the accompanying rain. He calculated the volume of flow and the flow rates of existing structures. He discovered the stormdrains were not large enough to develop the needed flow rate at the location on your street.
He specified larger drains.
The reason is because if there is a 100 year flood or near that you would be bitching about why didn’t they make the drains bigger. we couldn’t drive on our street.
It is possible that the removed drains can be used elsewhere if the rate at that location is smaller.
Cool.
But they sell replacement drain plugs at K-Mart too.
Dailing 911 would have been okay.
I have a strange desire to start an album. Weird.
-PJ
You don’t have a photo collection of your neighborhood sewer drains? What are you? Some kind of wierdo?
At least they don’t have the politicians NAMES on them - mkaing it necessary to change them everytime that slot gets a new name. Here in NY, the name of the current county executive HAS to be on every park sign. What a way to save money - keep the names out of it!
When NY gave us a rebate of our property taxes a couple of years ago, the checks had to be RE-PRINTED because they didn’t include the names of the legislators who sponsored the rebate. What a waste of TAXPAYERS money! Stopping now...
Wanna bet me how quick that new one will stop-up with
leaves,sticks and whatever,,,LOL,,,
(holes too small)
Been There Dun Dat!!!
Next it floods the street(where many sewer manholes are)
Then,,,
It fills up the sewer system with storm water,,,
Then...;0)...EUwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!
I sorta are one, with degrees. How 'bout you, PAL?
ML/NJ
Storm and sanitary are not always separate, especially in older cities. We here in Indy are like that, at least the older parts. Causes real problems when storms/flooding overload the system and the overflow gets dumped out into the rivers & streams.
Really? NYC is a "older city" I would think. I spend a little bit of time there. And when I walk by a storm drain, I never have had the feeling that I was walking past an open sewer.
ML/NJ
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.