Drainage Strategies: Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SuDS) And Sewer Design

The Berrys civil engineering team has over a decade of knowledge and experience in respect to SuDS and sewer planning and design. Our engineers work closely alongside our planning and architecture teams to ensure that SuDS components are an integrated feature within developments.

Well-designed SuDS, which embrace the four pillars set within CIRIA 753 and Welsh Statutory Standards, can dramatically enhance sites, whether new developments or retrofit schemes. The enhancement of sites is supported by designing for amenity, biodiversity, water quality, and water quantity. We view this an opportunity for good design, not just another constraint. With the progression of government policies to tackle issues such as climate change, flood risk, and nutrient neutrality, there has never been a more important time to ensure that the SuDS strategy for a given development is planned at an early stage in the design process. This will ensure that development proposals can be progressed to site expediently and construction costs are minimised, whilst maximising the value of the scheme design to the operation of the development.

We have vast experience in planning and designing SuDS schemes in Wales and England. Sites within Wales are subject to Statutory Approval Body (SAB) applications following the implementation of Schedule 3 in January 2019, requiring formal SuDS approval by the Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) to ensure compliance with the Statutory Standards. We have good working relationships with many of the SAB teams, as we have embraced to move towards the SAB model. The team have worked across commercial and residential schemes, from single plot dwellings, to large residential and commercial developments.

Effective surface water and foul sewer design should be integrated within the overall development masterplanning process. We provide concept design and outline drainage strategies, through to the detailed design of Section 104 (S104) and Section 38 (S38) adoptable works packages for SuDS and sewers. To enable us to work efficiently we use the latest hydraulic modelling and ground modelling software from the Causeway PDS and Flow design suites. 

Berrys are multi-disciplinary in our approach, so our engineers work alongside planners, architects, ecologists, and other practitioners to achieve our clients’ objectives and the best outcomes for the future legacy users or adopters of infrastructure. We carefully plan and design SuDS and sewers to ensure that future maintenance liabilities are reduced and asset management activities can be undertaken safely. This forms a key part of how we exercise our duties as designers under the Construction Design Management (CDM) Regulations, but also with SuDS policy requirements.

We are experts in the design, approval and operation of private off-mains foul drainage systems, in accordance with the Environment Agency General Binding Rules, the Natural Resource Wales (NRW) requirements, and also the requirements of Buildings Regulations and related British Standards. We can advise you of the requirements for operating a private sewage treatment plant system and we can take the pain out of obtaining the necessary permits to discharge, where required. This applies to both domestic waste and situations where trade effluent permits are required.

Please get in touch to discuss how we can help with your development project.