Background
Michigan Technological University (MTU) offers a course titled International
Senior Design. For the past six years this course has allowed groups
of students to travel to Santa Cruz, Bolivia in South America. The
class provides a chance for graduating students to utilize their
engineering skills, by solving civil/environmental type problems
in the developing world. Students within the class form teams to
undertake specific engineering projects.
Objective
To study storm water drainage problems in a Santa Cruz neighborhood.

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Santa
Anna Drainage
Santa Cruz, Bolivia
International Senior Design
August 2006
Engineering

Eric
Griffith, Chase Nelson, Keegan Peters
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FINAL
RECOMMENDATION
The advantages that design #2 has over design #1 are:
-
Less initial cost
- Less time to complete construction
- Superior sediment removal
- Fewer earth canals
- Less maintenance
Lower social impact
For
these reasons, KEC recommends design #2 be implemented to remediate
the flooding problems in Santa Anna neighborhood. This design will
be effective at removing the majority of floodwater. This design
is sufficient to handle flooding from a storm event of 50 years.
It will still be able to remove the floodwaters resulting from storm
events of greater magnitude and less occurrence, but not at a rapid
rate. It can be done at a reasonable price and has a good life expectancy.
The width of drainage route #2, 3rd Street, is quite small and the
social impacts from placing a canal along it become apparent.
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CONCLUSION
KEC prepared engineering solutions for a storm water drainage problem
in the 10th District of Santa Cruz. KEC studied this problem by
conducting a topographic survey, taking soil and water samples,
and meeting with local officials and residents. KEC evaluated many
options to alleviate the storm water flooding problem that plagues
Santa Anna neighborhood each rainy season. Several different types
of infrastructure and different drainage routes were studied. In
the end, KEC found to remove the neighborhoods floodwater, a combination
of drainage routes and infrastructure styles would work better than
one drainage route and infrastructure type. KEC recommends the design
option that utilizes one drainage route with a system of two subsurface
pipes, two sediment traps, and one earth canal. This design will
effectively remove the neighborhoods floodwater to the 6th Ring
canal. However, the design does require monthly maintenance, and
will not function if not properly maintained.
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