Street drainage blocked by leaves/plants

[y_p_w]

I live in a neighborhood where it's mostly soft curbs that are shaped to help route rainwater. That and quite a few storm drain grates. But there can be blockage - especially with parked cars where leaves build up under tires. Also leaves that block the storm drain grates. And even plants that grow in cracks, which interfere with the flow as well as leaving a tendency to collect leaves.

I have seen the occasional municipal worker coming to clear them out, but it’s pretty spotty. I think a lot of that is also removing buildup in storm drains rather than just clearing surface debris.

It’s been raining pretty hard here over the past week. This morning I looked out the window and say a solid block of leaves in a storm drain. It doesn’t necessarily affect me, but I thought I’d go out and clear them. But a neighbor beat me to it, although using a leaf blower when I was going to collect it as green waste.

I’ve heard some people don’t doing anything thinking it’s a government function. But it seemed to be something simple that I could do for the neighbors to maybe keep water from pooling in their yards.

 

[ecotourist]

We've cleared the leaves out of the street drains for decades. The local authority never has enough staff to do it, and if they did can you imagine the cost.

I'm told that in Finland the homeowner is responsible for keeping the street in front of their house swept (and maybe snow free too - not sure about that). If anyone knows different let us know.

 

[y_p_w]

It was helping for a while but the leaves keep on coming. Right now it’s not raining that hard, but the flow is pretty high from hours of rain. I saw that the flow was so high that it cleared out most of the leaves on the storm drain grate. I tried pulling out leaves (there were some under the water) but it didn’t make a dent once the water flow was enough to just skip past the drain opening. I also live on an incline, so it’s almost like a spillway.

 

[MNgopher]

While in a perfect world the government entity responsible would come out an maintain them as needed. Reality is quite different and as noted has to do with cost to do so. I work in stormwater / water resources here. I joke I could build you a city that will lever flood - but you can't afford to live there.

For some perspective, the entity that I work for has over 40,000 drainage structures in its system. Picture 5 minutes per drain and how long it would take to visit each one... knowing I have a crew of 5 inspectors at full strength... ( In other words - at 5 mins per, it would take us 667 hours to visit every location). And thats assuming thats all we have to look at - not the 60,000 pipes or the 1000 ponds in the system too, which we are also responsible for.

Reality is we tend to learn where we have issues, and resources are concentrated there.

Your mileage may vary...

 

[y_p_w]

While in a perfect world the government entity responsible would come out an maintain them as needed. Reality is quite different and as noted has to do with cost to do so. I work in stormwater / water resources here. I joke I could build you a city that will lever flood - but you can't afford to live there.

For some perspective, the entity that I work for has over 40,000 drainage structures in its system. Picture 5 minutes per drain and how long it would take to visit each one... knowing I have a crew of 5 inspectors at full strength... ( In other words - at 5 mins per, it would take us 667 hours to visit every location). And thats assuming thats all we have to look at - not the 60,000 pipes or the 1000 ponds in the system too, which we are also responsible for.

Reality is we tend to learn where we have issues, and resources are concentrated there.

Your mileage may vary...

It’s still whack a mole too. So I suppose homeowners in the neighborhood cleaning them out might be more responsive, in addition to possibly having some self-interest. When the water bypassed this one storm drain, some of it ended up in the next storm drains. Hard to explain the layout other than it’s a bit of a bulb past this particular storm drain without any channel and it just spreads. But some of the spreading water will flood my neighbor’s front lawn. I never have issues with runoff flooding my property since there’s a channel in front of the sidewalk.

I suppose he could set up sandbags.

 

[Lubener]

I always have kept the catch basin in front of my home clear. I was an active participant on the flood and drainage board in my city which has been known to flood. My street has had three feet of water several times since the mid 90's due to overflowing ditches.. I always keep a steel rake on my truck just for clearing a clogged catch basin in my city. I have used it many times to get the water flowing again in my travels.

 

[Capt W]

Great topic and a frequent subject of my retired guy rants. Our rainwater flows east-to-west in front of our house, running toward the storm drain four houses down the street. Naturally, the home situated three down from ours is occupied by a pair of slob renters who have no interest in performing any beautification or maintenance. As such, the end of their driveway features an island of grass, plants, and about three years' worth of leaves. This natural barrier serves as a very effective dam, causing all rainwater to back up in front of our houses located upstream.

The people are annoying slobs, so no dealing with them. The house is owned by an Austin LLC, so they don't care as long as the $2K in rent rolls in every month. Most of us are simply waiting for them to leave.

Very typical 30-something couple. Spend all their time outdoors with faces plastered to devices, but can't fathom picking up a few garden tools, a broom, and a jug of Roundup.

 

[SammyChevelleTypeS3]

I live in a neighborhood where it's mostly soft curbs that are shaped to help route rainwater. That and quite a few storm drain grates. But there can be blockage - especially with parked cars where leaves build up under tires. Also leaves that block the storm drain grates. And even plants that grow in cracks, which interfere with the flow as well as leaving a tendency to collect leaves.

I have seen the occasional municipal worker coming to clear them out, but it’s pretty spotty. I think a lot of that is also removing buildup in storm drains rather than just clearing surface debris.

It’s been raining pretty hard here over the past week. This morning I looked out the window and say a solid block of leaves in a storm drain. It doesn’t necessarily affect me, but I thought I’d go out and clear them. But a neighbor beat me to it, although using a leaf blower when I was going to collect it as green waste.

I’ve heard some people don’t doing anything thinking it’s a government function. But it seemed to be something simple that I could do for the neighbors to maybe keep water from pooling in their yards.

Similar situation on the street where I have lived for over 25 years. Since we have been here , nearly every home has been sold and new people moved into except for 3-4 of the houses. At least we still have a few long time - good to know - nice neighbors who care about keeping their places up etc.... Most who have moved here still have been here long enough to know what happens with big rains. We are lucky in that the street was built on small ridge and never floods into any homes like many do at bad times. Problem is all of these people who have the drains right in the very front of their yards could care less. It will pour down raining and they are flat out too lazy, don't care or ??? A few times when water pooled up into the street , I just eased across the street with a rake and pulled all the leaves and twigs etc out of the way and it flowed off fast like a river thinking they would take the example. NOT at all. They not only do not rake up their leaves but let the leaves and stuff just sit there. I do not even bother anymore since I am on the highest spot and will not flood.
At least every couple years the town will send a work crew around with a sucker truck and water flush and suck out all the drains etc....

 

[ecotourist]

Problem is all of these people who have the drains right in the very front of their yards could care less. It will pour down raining and they are flat out too lazy, don't care or ??? A few times when water pooled up into the street , I just eased across the street with a rake and pulled all the leaves and twigs etc out of the way and it flowed off fast like a river thinking they would take the example. NOT at all. They not only do not rake up their leaves but let the leaves and stuff just sit there. I do not even bother anymore since I am on the highest spot and will not flood.

I suspect people don't think they should get involved. City crews might object, someone might call the police, might be a union thing, etc.

Or they may not have a sense of community, and their dads never taught them.

People fail to consider how much it would cost to have any local authority staffed well enough to deal with all the drains after every storm, to always clear to snow before morning, etc. And renters would have to pay too because property taxes would have to be phenomenal.

 

[fat biker]

Large storm forecast? I clear storm drains in both directions. Not being a good neighbor. Straight up self interest.

 

[y_p_w]

Well - just to clarify a few things. I mentioned a bulb layout. The street flares out, but there's still a channel along the edge. However, when water bypasses this storm drain (right where it starts to flare out) in front of my house, the water mostly just goes down the street surface. If the flow of water is low and/or the drain isn't blocked, nearly all the water down this channel just dumps into the drain opening. But if it gets past this drain, it keeps on flowing and tends to jump over the (curved) channel, over the sidewalk, and into my neighbor's front lawn.

There's also been some resurfacing work done in the past few months, and I noticed there's bits of pavement sealant and aggregate that ended up along the edge of the storm drain. So I dislodged it as much as I could as it was blocking some water entry and trapping leaves/branches, etc.

I think a lot of what was discussed may not apply to my situation since I live on a reasonably steep incline. Any kind of leaves along a driveway would be eventually flushed by the force of the water with a heavy enough rain. I haven't seen anyone with a whole lot of grass along the edge of a driveway. I did find it interesting seeing plants just popping through the fresh pavement surface. If anything, getting these plants out might reduce the damage to the pavement.

 

[y_p_w]

There’s also a dead end on my street, where there’s basically a storm drain across the entire width. Had a look at it, and there are some spots that are caked with leaves and even bits of pavement. I tried loosening some of it. Not sure it really matters since it's so wide and there’s plenty of clear grating for water to pass through. It’s maybe 30 ft wide with a drainage channel below..

 

[Dave Hess]

Well - just to clarify a few things. I mentioned a bulb layout. The street flares out, but there's still a channel along the edge. However, when water bypasses this storm drain (right where it starts to flare out) in front of my house, the water mostly just goes down the street surface. If the flow of water is low and/or the drain isn't blocked, nearly all the water down this channel just dumps into the drain opening. But if it gets past this drain, it keeps on flowing and tends to jump over the (curved) channel, over the sidewalk, and into my neighbor's front lawn.

There's also been some resurfacing work done in the past few months, and I noticed there's bits of pavement sealant and aggregate that ended up along the edge of the storm drain. So I dislodged it as much as I could as it was blocking some water entry and trapping leaves/branches, etc.

I think a lot of what was discussed may not apply to my situation since I live on a reasonably steep incline. Any kind of leaves along a driveway would be eventually flushed by the force of the water with a heavy enough rain. I haven't seen anyone with a whole lot of grass along the edge of a driveway. I did find it interesting seeing plants just popping through the fresh pavement surface. If anything, getting these plants out might reduce the damage to the pavement.

Can you take photo(s) ?