Caleb Wilson, EI is a water resources engineering intern serving Gresham Smith’s Water and Environment clients. He has worked on numerous pump station projects including replacement of aging existing stations as well as new lift stations to support community growth. His skill set also includes large and small diameter gravity sewer system planning and design. Caleb has observed firsthand how storms can impact sanitary sewer infrastructure through his time spent designing multiple wet weather diversion structures.

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Cameron Traylor, P.E. is a water resources engineer, versed in civil design on both “inside the fence” (facility) and “outside the fence” (conveyance) projects. His expertise extends from site grading to process hydraulics. His keen attention to detail makes sure the design and implementation of any project is efficient and constructable. Skilled in surge analysis, Cameron has modeled various scenarios for clients seeking to mitigate existing surge or surge potential.

Urban stormwater management is a balancing act between our desire to shape the local environment for our purposes and the escalating impact our infrastructure has on the environment. The mission of stormwater infrastructure is to safely collect, retain, and convey stormwater. We all encounter this infrastructure daily: curb and gutter inlets along residential streets, concrete culverts under roads, detention and retention ponds adjacent to parking lots, and earthen levees along rivers and coastlines. To design all these assets, engineers use what are known as “design storms.” These hypothetical storms that occur at any given frequency, duration, and intensity enable design calculations of all sizes of infrastructure.

However, emerging research shows the potential inadequacies of the traditional design storm approach. Storm intensity, duration, and frequency are rapidly changing across the country. Higher intensity events are becoming increasingly frequent, while the rainfall totals remain largely unchanged – effectively masking the evolving nature of storms without close inspection of the data. These data show that we may be designing our stormwater infrastructure for conditions that no longer persist.

Gresham Smith Engineers Caleb Wilson and Cameron Traylor will discuss a history of stormwater management practices, describe design storms and how they are used during design, present current research on how storms are changing, and provide insights from other engineering disciplines that may be applicable to stormwater management.