Pump Curves, Beyond Comprehension

[TBCEng07]

We just received a set of plans for a sports arena parking lot to review as part of a peer review. Part of the project involves the construction of a storm water pump station.

The 'designer' (not an engineer) of the pump station has sized the station for the water quality release rate which is much less than the allowable release rate. thereby undersizing his detention pond. they are using a water quality structure to control flow into the pump station already, so undersizing the pump station is unnecessary. I believe the pump station will actually pump more than the 'designer' is calling for b/c 1. her forcemain is way oversized and the 2. she hasnt run a system head curve on the proposed station.

The funny part is that when i questioned her about the system head curve, she told me that we were going to have to "give them an example of what one looked like." You have to be kidding me that someone would design a pump station without knowing what i would actually pump. i guess this is what the LEED certification gets you.

We will likely end up designing this station for them (just to save face), since our name is going on the plans as well.

 

[ptmoss]

I don't understand. If you're doing a peer review why would your firm's name be going on the plan? If you're reviewing it and something is missing, ask for it. If they can't, or won't, provide it then document that response to whomever you're reviewing the plans for. No way would I do their design work for them.

 

[cvg]

I'm not sure what your question is, but I agree with ptmoss that you should ask the designer the hard questions and get the answers. If this is your subconsultant then you may want to escalate this to the next level and ask the engineer. Their is an engineer supervising the work who will stamp the plans, right?