Water buffering and infiltration systems reduce nuisance during heavy rains

Climate change brings us heavy downpours. The sewage systems then fill up and water looks for an outlet through toilet bowls. Streets, squares and streams overflow and tunnels and basements flood. But with drainage problems have come solutions. Water buffering and infiltration systems can minimize the nuisance.

One company specifically dedicated to drainage issues is the TBS-SVA Group. The company put itself on the map with its traditional street gullies and manhole covers. Now it also brings a wide range of line drainage products, including grating gutters, drainage gutters and concealed/slotted gutters. The latter in particular are suitable for water buffering.

Water buffering with the Forte 800

"Water buffering is one way to address drainage problems," says Willy Bruckers, commercial director of TBS/SVA Group. "A nice product, for example, is the Forte 800; a gutter with an external dimension of 1.10 x 1.10 m. A serious gutter, therefore, that can buffer quite a lot of water. Once the buffered water mass reaches a certain level, the overflow construction comes into effect and the water can leave the sewer in a dosed manner via narrow pipes."

Infiltration with porous gullies

Infiltration, on the contrary, aims to prevent overloading the hydrological structure by infiltrating some of the water already on site. "For this, we have gullies made of porous concrete," Bruckers explains. "Because of the porous wall, part of the water can immediately go outside. This is collected in a buffer facility around the gully, made up of lava or pebbles, so that the water slowly disappears into the underlying soil. The gully can also be fitted with an overflow, for example to a ditch or sewer pipe."

Gullies with dirt traps

An increasingly common technique is the combination of permeable paving and a carpet pad of plastic crates or pebbles. But this also has a disadvantage, Bruckers notes. "With this solution there is a fairly high chance of blockages, which can still cause flooding. To prevent this, standard dense paving can be laid with dirt traps developed for in the special outflow gullies that discharge back into the crates or buffer layers under the paving. These gullies are easily cleaned with the standard gully vacuum cleaner." TBS-SVA GROUP is working closely with Aquaflow from Amsterdam on this.

Meanwhile, developments in drainage at TBS/SVA Group are far from standing still. For example, the company recently introduced two gully lines that catch and hold dirt, preventing street debris from entering the sewers or surface water behind. These gullies are equipped with the Well Valve^® Which is also a perfect smell lock.