Unit-Process-Based Approach to Design of Highway Runoff Treatment and Control Facilities

The selection of highway BMPs has historically centered on choosing BMP types from a menu of options based primarily on lowest cost and/or footprint area, and reported performance. However, the state of the practice now allows for a more fundamental approach that explicitly incorporates the concept of unit operations and processes (UOPs) together with empirical data in a manner analogous to the conceptual design process for wastewater treatment systems. The UOP approach to BMP design places emphasis on the selection of treatment system elements that are intended, by design, to specifically address project objectives by targeting specific pollutants and their forms. These elements include conventional stormwater BMPs (e.g., swales, ponds, tanks, etc.) that provide primary and secondary UOP mechanisms (e.g. settling, filtration, adsorption, precipitation, etc.), as well as pre-treatment devices (e.g., hydrodynamic devices, trash racks, catch basin screens, etc.), custom hydraulic controls (e.g., flow splitters, weirs, orifices, etc.), and even tertiary treatment enhancements (e.g., soil amendments, selected vegetative species and microorganisms, mixing and aeration devices, and disinfection systems). The purpose of this paper is to summarize a framework and design methodology for applying fundamental principles of UOPs to aid in the evaluation and selection of highway runoff management and treatment control systems. This paper introduces the overall philosophy of the integrated unit process design approach and challenges readers to fundamentally change the way they approach the design of highway runoff treatment and control systems. The recommendations are very applicable to authors of BMP requirements and design manuals.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Strecker, Eric
  • Leisenring, Mark L
  • Huber, Wayne C
  • Quigley, M M
  • Heaney, J P
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 86th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2007-1-21 to 2007-1-25
• Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 18p
• Monograph Title: TRB 86th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers CD-ROM

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Best practices; Design; Detention basins; Drainage; Environment; Hydrodynamics; Methodology; Runoff; Sewage treatment; Swales; Wastewater
• Uncontrolled Terms: Empirical design; Ponds; Unit operations and process concepts
• Subject Areas: Design; Energy; Environment; Highways; Hydraulics and Hydrology; I15: Environment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01042484
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 07-3127
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 1 2007 8:39AM