Technical Description:
- (2) DuroMaxx® rainwater harvesting cisterns
- Mechanical pumps and controls
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Westfield Century City, a shopping mall in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, completed the construction of a new $30 million parking structure, adding 500 new parking spaces to the mall.
Adding a parking garage to an existing mall in an urban environment was daunting. There was little usable area to place a stormwater solution, so an infiltration system was not a viable solution. The engineers on the project, Rick Engineering, then looked at a solution using flow-through planters, as the City of LA’s Low Impact Development regulations require flow-through planters be used if infiltration is not possible.
Rick Engineering designed a system that would optimize the size of the planters by including two DuroMaxx Steel Reinforced Polyethylene (SRPE) cisterns in the basement of the parking garage. The cisterns were sized to hold the City of LA’s Standard Urban Stormwater Mitigation Plan (SUSMP) sizing of the ¾ inch storm event. Each of the watertight cisterns consists of 32 LF of 72” diameter DuroMaxx. DuroMaxx is an ideal choice for rainwater harvesting cisterns. Eighty (80) ksi steel reinforcing ribs provide the strength, and pressure rated polyethylene (PE) resin provides the durability. The combination of materials results in an extraordinarily strong and durable pipe that sets a new industry standard. All DuroMaxx cisterns are custom made to watertight specifications to suit project requirements.
Contech provided an integrated solution, including all of the pumps and controls for the system, along with engineering and design support. Water stored in the cisterns is metered out slowly within a 24-hour period to planters along the facade of the parking garage. This design met the stormwater regulations, while optimizing critical parking spaces within this parking garage.
“This was a complex and highly constrained urban redevelopment project that involved participation by a number of consultants to ensure compliance with the City of Los Angeles sanitation and building department requirements,” said Frank Lopez, Project Manager at Rick Engineering. “The Contech team helped bridge the gap between consultants who were focused on meeting specific requirements associated with their respective design. The team was highly responsive and technically sound. Many thanks to Jeremiah Lehman, Kathryn Thomason and Maryjane Macleod for their assistance.”
Contech’s UrbanGreen Rainwater Harvesting System resulted in economic, regulatory and aesthetic goals being met.
Technical Description:
- (2) DuroMaxx® rainwater harvesting cisterns
- Mechanical pumps and controls
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