Project Description
This project in North Austin entailed employing an ecological solution to stormwater runoff pooling on the driveway.
This customer had three main objectives:
1) Come up with a solution to the pooling issue.
2) Allow more area for visitors to step out of their cars on a walkway versus the lawn (especially their mobility-challenged parents); and
3) Create more area on the existing small front porch to allow for an outdoor living area.
Resolution:
We removed all of the existing concrete sidewalk leading up to the front door and replaced it with sawed limestone slabs to extend the walkway from the street to the extended patio area, which solved the second and third objectives. For the first objective, we created a slight descending grade from the driveway to the center of their lawn to create a channel for the stormwater. We then excavated a medium-sized swale in the lawn to create a rain garden where stormwater could infiltrate the soil of the former lawn, while planting deep-rooted native grasses and plants in the surrounding berms that will benefit from the added soil moisture.
Project Details
By the numbers:
200 sq. ft.: Rain Garden swale area.
650 sq. ft.: St. Augustine turfgrass removed.
990 gallons: approximate rain garden capacity.
540 gallons: rain captured from impervious surfaces in 1” rain event.
317: new native plants installed.
12: native plant species used.
