Newsletter October 2023

Climate change is real!  Just in the month of September 2023, there was extensive flooding and loss of lives in Guatemala, Mexico, Libya, Hong Kong, Greece, Spain, Brazil, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Pennsylvania, South Africa and many more places.

Headlines featured reports of Japan receiving 158mm of rain in just one hour, while Spain recorded 240mm of rainfall in a 24-hour period.

Flood prevention is one of the primary roles of drainage designs in civil engineering.  As such civil engineers need to focus on designing and constructing resilient infrastructure.  This includes flood barriers, levees and stormwater drainage systems.

At Civilistix, our engineers play a crucial role in flood prevention through smart urban planning.  We use techniques such as permeable pavements, greens roofs and retention ponds.  These sustainable solutions help absorb excess rainwater, reduce runoff and mitigate the risk of flooding.

Our engineers analyse historical flood data and employ the latest industry software and technology to ensure the delivery of high-quality designs.  Our designs empower developers to make data-driven decisions, ultimately saving lives and property.

In conclusion, civil engineers the world over, are actually the unsung heroes on the frontlines of flood prevention. Their dedication to designing resilient infrastructure, employing innovative stormwater management techniques, and harnessing technology makes our communities safer and more resilient in the face of natural disasters.

I have the opportunity and pleasure of being a Project Engineer at Civilistix. I began this journey with Civilistix in 2021 and what an amazing journey it has been. I bring over 6 years of Civil engineering experience to this dynamic team. I have had the opportunity to work on various small to large scale developments, from residential to industrial and everything in between.  Work is my passion, and family is where my heart is at.

I graduated with a National Diploma in Civil Engineering.  I secured distinctions in mathematics and graduated top of my class in the Transportation Engineering Degree program, with cum laude.  As these are but steppingstones, the next goal I have my sights set on is becoming a chartered engineer with ICE.

At Civilistix, I am responsible for the private and adoptable drainage proposals, private external works proposals, adoptable highways proposals and utility budget estimate reports for schemes. My speciality is the detailed design of drainage, highway, and external works infrastructure on projects.

Family is where I draw power from, and work is where I make it shine!

Civilistix Consulting Engineers were appointed to prepare a Private Drainage Strategy and External Hardstanding Design for a development for tender, building regulation approval and so construction could commence. The development consisted of a 14 storey plus 2no. storey basement, creating 233 residential units.

Due to the site being located on underlying London clay and the risk of mobilising pollutants in made ground, the use of drainage infiltration systems was deemed unfeasible. There were no watercourses within the near vicinity of the site, so it was proposed that the surface water be disposed of to a Thames Water combined water sewer within Avonmouth Street (in accordance with the approved drainage strategy).

Similarly, all foul water drainage would be disposed of to the same combined sewer.

The drainage strategy included the use of a green roof. It was proposed that the surface water from the roof and hardstanding areas would be discharged to private carrier pipes, connected to a geo-cellular attenuation tank from which flows would be discharged at a maximum rate of 2l/s for all storm events up to and including the critical 100 years plus 40% climate change event.

A portion of the surface water from the hardstanding would be drained via a Type C tanked permeable paving system providing treatment to runoff before being conveyed to the attenuation tank.

We worked in close collaboration with other design teams, to deliver a fully coordinated proposed external works and drainage design solution for the client.

Two fantastic engineers have joined our team!  A warm Welcome to Yaré and Fran.

They are a great addition to our Civilistix family and bring with them year of experience and expertise.

We look forward to getting to know them better.