I know there’s considerable speculation about the giant, plastic milk crates that have been providing an “interesting” feature in our old car park for several weeks! To me they have almost become an accepted part of the ODEC Campus, our own take on a “Louvre Pyramid” like piece of art work albeit in our case made out of chunky, black plastic and lacking the artistic pedigree of Mr. Pei. Well today my friends speculate no more, our “Study of a Giant Milk Crate” by Precision Pipe is morphing into its rightful purpose as an intrinsic part of our storm water treatment system. When I last wrote in this blog Higgerson, our erstwhile site contractors, were just starting to excavate the first of what will eventually be three storm water settling tanks. Today the excavation got to the point where Higgerson could start installing the plastic crates and what a process to behold! It’s an interesting structure, to start with the hole is genuinely immaculate, beautifully contoured, even and the base so packed you could eat your lunch off it. That base is covered by a black, multi-layered cloth like material and then our plastic crates are very carefully set out on the cloth in an interlocking pattern, it very much resembles giant Lego bricks on a black carpet! Once the area of cloth is covered in plastic crates the ends of the cloth are drawn over the top of the crates to completely encase them like wrapping a gift. The wrapped crates are then buried in sand then the sand in a layer of special earth – that definitely has an earthy aroma – followed by a special mulch that will in turn support topsoil and grass. From the finished surface that grass will slope down from the edges of tank to a grating in the center of the now underground structure. Storm water will enter this tank in one of two ways, the first is via the underground culvert that will connect this tank, actually number three in the chain, to tank number two and the second as rainwater runoff through the grating. The layers of sand, earth and cloth are the filtration system each in turn removing ever finer impurities and nutrients from the storm water until the filtered water finally drains into the void created by our plastic milk crates and from there into those 24” concrete pipes and eventually discharging into the Chesapeake Bay water catchment area!! It really is fascinating stuff made all the better by the wide range of yellow equipment festooning the site. The heavy roller was briefly left unguarded and my thoughts were leaning towards taking it for a spin but, unfortunately, its operator was keeping a beady eye on his roller and me so no luck this time but one day? Well you never know. Stay safe and stay healthy, yours aye, David Beach.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorDavid Beach is our Building Project Manager, and has been an active part of our parish family for more than a decade. He is retired from NATO and the British Army and is a joy and blessing to all of us. Archives
July 2021
|