Unpredictable Weather Doesn’t Allow for Gambling with Erosion Control BMPs

Unpredictable weather can be a thorn in the side of any construction project team in more ways than one. Appropriate erosion control Best Management Practices (BMPs) must be selected to ensure protection against worst-case scenarios, predictable or not. Project managers must be able to balance cost concerns with proven BMP performance when making their decisions. This presentation showcases a project where many of the initial BMPs were chosen because of lower upfront cost and not higher performance capabilities.

Full Abstract: Property owners, land developers, and contractors must be more diligent than ever to ensure that erosion and sediment control work on their job sites is done properly. The selection of appropriate erosion control Best Management Practices (BMPs) that can withstand sporadic, sometimes intense precipitation events should be based on both third-party large-scale testing and proven real-world performance.

These weather concerns and their impact on the chosen BMPs were illustrated during a utility upgrade, road resurfacing, and sidewalk installation project on a 60-acre (24-hectare) site in Wisconsin, United States. The region experienced multiple high-precipitation events during the late spring and early fall months which, coupled with drought-like conditions throughout spring and summer, made the site’s soils highly susceptible to erosion. Several types of erosion control BMPs were installed around the site to help prevent worst-case erosion scenarios, including runoff into storm drains, the site’s two wetland areas, or a nearby impaired river.

Unfortunately, several of the BMPs either did not perform sufficiently or failed outright, meaning certain areas of the site needed to be reworked. Each failure occurred being that certain products were not designed to withstand the forces incurred from the precipitation events in an unvegetated state. Essentially, cost was prioritized over performance capabilities.

Using photos and information gathered from a job site over the course of 7 months, this presentation presents several examples of why utilizing BMPs that cost less upfront without considering their inferior performance capabilities often costs more in the long term. Specifying and properly installing higher-performing products helps keep projects clean and operational, prevents costly rework and potential nonconformance fines over the project’s lifetime, better protects precious soil and water resources, and saves everyone money.