Royal Holloway University

Key Challenges

Part of the site sits within the 1 in 100 year flood plain of a nearby water course and a Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS) was required to reduce the impact of the development on the natural water environment.

Solution

The chosen solution was to design the sports pitches in such a way so as to attenuate the rain water within the aggregate sub-base of the pitches. Rainfall falling on the sports pitches percolates through the porous surfaces into the open voided aggregate sub-base below.

A series of Infra Green Permavoid Sports conduits are located within the aggregate layer to diffuse the water and impermeable check dams have been used, splitting the pitches into small catchments to ensure that water is evenly distributed throughout the pitches.

• Storage within the system is very shallow.
• Removing the need for pumping and reducing the amount of time that the drainage system is locked whilst the nearby brook is in its flooded state
• Spreads the water storage throughout the entire development
• Areas above the flood zone will still attenuate and operate effectively even when the brook is at its 1 in 100yr flood level