Sustainable Project Design Management

Final Report

Topic: The Suhua Roadway Improvement Project:

Stormwater Runoff Quantity

Group 8:
Reggie Clarita Lim
John Harrison
Henry Chen
George Jatta

Project Overview
The Suhua roadway improvement project is
currently underway in North-eastern
Taiwan. There are three section of the
road that will be improved. The budget for
this project is stated to be 46.5 billion NT
dollars. It is to be completed in 2017-18.
It is noted that the project, which started
this year, is already behind schedule (Taipei
Times, 2011).

Purpose of Studying the Suhua Roadway Project

This area of Taiwan is of unique geography and geology. The average total annually
rainfall for Hualien is 2176.8mm and for Yilan is 2837.7mm (CWB, 2011), thus making it
a very wet location for most of the year. Seasonal typhoons often make landfall in the
Hualian/Yilan region of Taiwan. Coupled with the complex geology found in this area,
creates engineering challenges to stabilize weak or easily eroded bedrock. Therefore
not only environmental issues are affected but living and traveling in this area becomes
hazardous. Yet, roadways are continuously damaged, then repaired to maintain
accessibility to larger regional centers for economic purposes. This includes trade and
tourism that relies on the roadway being open to truck and bus traffic. Finally, the high
cost of this project has raised questions about the sustainability of such a project,
whereas as alternatives to a road could be more viable and cheaper.

Problems Identified

Figure 1 shows a framework for highway stormwater runoff. Four areas have been
identified as management criteria. These four have been adapted from the Greenroads
credit rating system (2011). The Environment and Water section of the manual
describes eight categories that highway projects can obtain credits from. From the
eight, EW-2 Runoff Flow Control and EW-3 Runoff Quality are deemed within the scope
of this study.
Runoff Quantity Control
It has been determined that runoff quality is not an issue for this project. This is
because of the massive quantity of annual precipitation that the project area receives.
The Environmental Impact Assessment completed for this project reports annual
average precipitation of 4309.6 mm (EIA, Su-ao, 2009). It is also stated that
precipitation is driven by the rainy season and the affects of typhoons hitting the area.
Therefore, for this study, quantity and control of water have been identified as a matter that
requires a specific management approach to handle such enormous amounts of precipitation,
and the latter, runoff.

Goals/Objectives
The aim of this study is to design and propose a sustainable management approach for
roadway stormwater runoff quantity specifically for the Suhua project. Within this
approach, such issues can be addressed: 1. Minimizing downstream flooding, 2.
Mitigating against alterations to the local ecology, 3. Reducing runoff volumes requiring
treatment 4. Maximizing the efficiency of sediment control.
Structures and designs
will be investigated based on their maximum flow rate and volume capacities.
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Therefore, stormwater management can help to avoid impacts such as preservation or if

possible to restore the natural features. It is also a way to protect as much undisturbed
land as possible and to be able to minimize the hydrologic alteration of the site.

Methodology
The Best Management Practice is technique, measure or structural control that is used
for a given set of conditions to manage the quantity and improve the quality of storm
water runoff in the most cost-effective manner. Moreover, The goals of all storm water
best management practices is to reduce or eliminate the contaminants collected by
storm water from being transported into the natural
waterways and other bodies of water so that the quality
of the water can be maintained thus protecting both the
environment and the public from potential damages
caused by exposure to pollutants (Safe, Drain 2011). In
addition, the BMP can be designed with sufficient
storage volume and/or infiltration capacity to accept the
stormwater runoff from the site after development in
addition to runoff from all areas upstream. Figure 1
shows the workflow of the BMP/LID selection process.
Figure 1: BMP/LID Workflow

In the table7.1, it shows a matrix about the BMP where it listed down several methods
or techniques that can be used for runoff volume. Likewise, it also stated the potential
application of these methods; for example, it can be applied to roadway. Furthermore,
through this list of methods, it also illustrates the stormwater quantity function that
ranges from low to high which can be a factor in choosing a more sustainable method
management.
Table 1: BMPs and Factors, from Bui (2011).

It is noticeable that the BMP and LID are interrelated to each other as both concepts are
for water management. Likewise, most of them have the techniques and methods to
manage water whether for quantity or quality. Furthermore, the BMP and LID
incorporates pollution prevention and treatment, flood control and watershed
management are other functions of the two concepts. Thus, through these concepts it is
evidently seen that it will be effective application for stormwater runoff.
In the table below, it shows the common Best Management Practices and Low Impact
Development strategies for the stormwater runoff especially for the water quantity. The
group used several journals such as Tsai & Chang (2011), as they mentioned in the
sustainable items: drainage is one of indicators that can be associated with roadway in
which it mentioned several strategies for sustainable flow of the storm water.
Table 2: BMP candidates chosen for Suhua Sample Roadway Section.
BMP

Quantity
Control

Runoff
Reduction Rate

1.Grass Swales

Steep
Slopes

2.Infiltration Basin

50-80

3.Pervious Pavement

40-75

4.Bio-retention

40-80

5.Vegetated Swales

40-60

40-60

Bioretention has been chosen as the most suitable BMP/LID approach for this prject
based on it performance on steep slopes and quantity control potential. This will be
analysed in later sections.
Indicators
Greenroads is a rating system available specifically for designing and constructing
sustainable infrastructure projects. The Green roads is also a collection of sustainability
best practices which can be applied to any roadway project, including new,
reconstruction and rehabilitation, and bridges. Therefore, this study will be adapting
green roads credits system to analyze if the management methods suit a project such as
SuHua Roadway Improvement project..
Greenroad Credit Example: EW 2, Stormwater Runoff Control
The goal of this credit is to mimic the hydrological right of way and minimize the offsite
stormwater control. Within this credit example, five requirements must be met to
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achieve the 1-3 points. They are as follows; 1. Develop a stormwater management plan
for the site using BMP for flow control, 2. Use LID BMP to the maximum extent, 3.
Compute the 90th percentile average annual rainfall event values for predevelopment
and post construction conditions, 4. Provide BMPs for the stormwater control, 5.
Demonstrate that the planned BMPs meet the flow control criteria.
Sustainable Items
Tsai and Chang (2011) have developed a sustainable items list for the application to
highway design. The list includes the aspect of drainage as an indicator, with five
techniques identified. They include runoff reduction, vegetated or gravel ditches,
rainwater catchments, infiltration trenches or catch basins, and sediment ponds (2011).

Design and Sustainable Process

In the paper of Waage (2007) which is, ``Reconsidering Product Design: a Practical Road
Map for Integration of Sustainability Issues`` where it has discussed a model of product
design processes that involves successive phases: Understand, Explore, Define and
Refine and Implement. We have adopted these four phases to achieve a sustainable
management approach for the Su-Hua stormwater runoff, specifically the matter of
water quantity. We did satisfied phase 1 and 2, which we try to understand and explore
more about the stormwater runoff particularly in the water quantity. As we explore the
and have more in depth learning about the storm water quantity, the group realized that
water quantity and water control are interrelated because through the water control it
also tries to measure the water quantity. This is the phase 3 where we refine more of our
topic in order to be more meaningful. Furthermore, through the further research
methods, checklist, and other matters that can be help for the more efficient handling of
the water quantity in Su-hua roadway are being stated and discussed. This is the final
phase where in the group will provide the simple strategies that is feasible and can be
implemented in the Su-Hua roadway project.
Analysis - Sample Highway Section
The roadway section from 104k +726m, to 120k+000m was chosen as the sample
location to analyse BMP and LID methods.
The infiltration capacity of soils along the
roadway is an important factor when determining total runoff values. The EIA report
notes that this area is made up rugged terrain with steep and narrow catchments.
Such geography includes shallow soils with mixed geology.
Furthermore, it can be

assumed that during the rainy season and typhoon events that infiltration capacities
would be quickly reached and overland runoff would then occur.
The Su-hua roadway project has three sections that need to be improved. We chose the
Suao-Dongao section as a case study.
The base road conditions:
Width : 8 m
Length : 9.8 km
Average slope(S) : 5%
There are some characteristics with this section:
Too many curves
High accident rate
According to the above situation, government plans to improve Suao-Dongao section as
following :
Width : 14~18 m
Length : 9.8 km
Add 3 tunnels (4km), 5 bridges (4.4km)
Open Roadway length: 1.4 km
Figure 3 shows eight years of rainfall data for the Su-ao area, from 2003-2010 (CWB,
2012). It is noted that there was a lack of precipitation data at the time of data
collection.
Figure 3: 90th Percentile for Su-ao, 3000 mm, CWB (2012)

90th Percentile for Su-ao Area

Rainfall (mm)

6000
5000
4000
3000
Rainfall (mm)

2000
1000
0
0

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Probability (%)

Below is the data available based on the requirements for the Greenroads EW-2 credit
category (2011).
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Pre-Construction Total Runoff Volume

Given Data: Open Roadway length = 1.4 km
Roadway Width = 8m
90th Percentile Total Annual Rainfall = 3000 mm
Sample Roadway Area =
= 1,400 8
= 11,200 2
Total Roadway Runoff = 90
= 3000 11,200 2
= 33,600 3

Post-Construction Total Runoff Volume

Given Data: Open Roadway length = 1.4 km
Roadway Width = 18m
Total Annual Rainfall = 3000 mm
Sample Roadway Area =
= 1,400 18
= 25,200 2
Total Roadway Runoff = 90
= 3000 25,200 2
= 75,600 3

= 90th Percentile Post-Construction 90th Percentile Pre-Construction = 90th Additional

Highway Runoff

= , , = ,
Run-on Calculation
This calculation was not done because there is lack of data for this section.
required would include through flow groundwater rates.
Rv Calculation
= Vtotal-post/Vtotal-pre = Rv
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Data

= 75,600/33,600
Rv = 2.25
When we compare our value to table EW-2.1 from the Greenroads Manual, under the
existing alignment, the sample roadway sections does not earn any credits.

Bioretention BMP Analysis

Table 1 shows that Bioretention can reduce runoff quantities by 40-80%. We assume
that a reduction rate would be between the range for this BMP. The value of 60% is
chosen for this calculation. The reduction calculation is as follows;
= Vtotal-post 60% = Potential Reduction by Bioretention
= 75,600 *0.4 = 30,240 m3
Furthermore, an Rv value can be calculated as follows;
Rv = Vtotal-post/Vtotal-pre
Rv = 0.9
This new Rv value can then be compared to table EW-2.1, under the existing alignment.
A total of 2 points can be earned with this BMP method.
Discussion
The use of the Bioretention system to control runoff quantities seems to be the ideal
solution to gain points from the Greenroads credit system. This extra effort may
theoretically be worthwhile, but may in fact may add additional man hours and cost to
the project. As seen in the above calculations, a considerable runoff reduction is
needed to earn two Greenroads points.

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Conclusion
This study investigated a sustainable management approach that could be developed
and applied to a roadway improvement project in an area of Taiwan that is prone to
enormous amounts of annual rainfall. Therefore, such large amounts of precipitation
pose great challenges in the design and sustainable management of such a project. The
Greenroads ideology provides a basic framework to improving construction methods
used, but may require too much effort to the design phase of a project such as the Su-ao
Improvement project.
Division of Work
The workload for this project has been divided evenly amongst our group. Henry and
Reggie have been responsible for gathering EIA data that is in Chinese. George and
John have been gathering and reviewing literature for the quantity issues related to
runoff. Despite the division of work, we had weekly meetings to discuss progress and
difficulties that we had encountered. This allowed for group members to openly share
ideas with others to help build on our final project. This created a well-balanced effort
from all members.
Barriers
There was a language barrier that we faced in analysing data in Chinese. Only half our
group can read Chinese. Lack of data on our topic resulted in certain analysis to be
carried out. This also includes the fact that this project is under construction and some
measurements are not available. An example of this is the data for Run-on values,
which is not reported to be measured. Other barriers include lack of knowledge in the
background of civil engineering techniques for highway construction.
Reflections
This course allowed our group to learn more about the design and management of a
roadway project in Taiwan. We attempted to apply Greenroads philosophies to such a
project. Though it was difficult at times, we feel that we have gain valuable insight to
this field of study. The course work was somewhat heavy, due to the amount of smaller
assignments due on short notice. This forced our group to organise ourselves quickly
and efficiently. This was stressful at times, but we managed to integrate our strengths
to fulfill our given tasks.
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References
National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report 565.(2006). Evaluation of Best
Management Practises for Highway Runoff Control. Transportation Research Board.
Washington D.C.
SuHua Highway Project Environmental Impact Assessment Report (in chinese).
Retrieved from http://www.epa.gov.tw/
Greenroads Manual, volume 1.5 (2011)
Tsai, C. Y., Chang, A. S., Framework for developing construction sustainability items: the
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Journal

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Cleaner

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Central Weather Bureau of Taiwan. Precipitation Mean 1981-2010. Retrieved from:

http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V6e/index.htm
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Safe Drain. (2011). Storm Water Pollution Prevention
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