Hello my underground friends. Up until recently I have mostly been above ground. Anyways, my recent trek into a combined drain (mentioned as a "storm drain" in an old post) brought me across an interesting room about 100 feet in. My question is "what is this?" The video is here and I made a (public) DB entry with pics and maps for it here.

Using the initial view in the video as a reference, I will try to describe it as best as I can:

0:00 Right in front of me is a containment barrier. In the far right corner of this section there is a connection to another system

0:00 - 0:34 Panning across the room

0:34 - 0:39 Walking to the "inlets" in this room

0:39 - 1:03 "Inlets" to the controlled area

1:03 - 1:18 Panning back towards the outfall and pipe to a separate system.

1:18 - 1:25 Quick look from "separation" pipe, to the handle controlling the valve into said pipe, to a manhole

1:25 - 1:53 Walking to the first "feeder" pipe heading back towards the outfall

1:53 - 2:09 Looking down the feeder then walking to the feeders under Riverside Dr

2:09 - 2:23 Looking down the feeders along Riverside Dr.

2:23 - 2:26 A manhole along Riverside

2:26 - 2:37 Another manhole along Riverside

2:37 - 2:52 Walking back to the "separation room"

2:52 - 3:05 One last look at the "separation chamber" and the valve controlling it

EDIT 1&2: Clarity

CSO? I'm not very familiar with those, nor why it seems to join and then split...

it's hard to tell from the photos or video, but it looks like there are two separate connections here. My guess is that there's a combined sewer collector sewer being diverted (possibly to an interceptor) behind the walls/weir. During heavy rainfall the collector may be overwhelmed, in which it is designed to spill over the wall/weir and into the storm conduit as relief.

OK thanks. That's what I figured it was but my sewer maps only show the one main pipe there. I'm kinda new to the whole underground thing but I'm loving it so far.

It may be an overflow room, to prevent the sewage, or river from backing up into the pipe. Tough to say though without any pics or drawings.

Posted by Curious_George Tough to say though without any pics or drawings.

I went back and checked my maps and realized that the area in question was on a different tile than the one I was looking at :/ Here is how I *think* it works after looking at the right map. I have included the map of this junction below to make it easier to explain.

The 2 infalls in this room are the 600mm CSO(green) that runs to the NE and the 1500mm CSO that runs to the SE. From there the water goes into the chamber in question and then down a drop shaft into the 1650mm sewer(red) which brings it to the treatment plant. I believe inventor77 was right when he said that in the event of a heavy rainfall/spring thaw, the water is allowed to spill out into the river if it gets to be too much for the system to handle.

Does this seem like a logical explanation?


http://www.citywin.../SewerAtlas/J3.pdf

Main Index:
http://www.citywin...exPageJan72010.pdf
Gotta love the City of Windsor xD

Wow! How did you get maps? I would love to have maps of my area to help me find new drains.

Posted by Pteronym Wow! How did you get maps? I would love to have maps of my area to help me find new drains.

I was looking for information about possible steam tunnels under my city one day and came across these maps right on the city's website.

Yeah, you are lucky to have such a nice city council where I live they charge an ugly price to access the city gis data :-\

Cheers,
crazytrain1978

I was considering going to town hall to see how much the maps would cost and couldn't believe it when I found them online for free. Especially considering the city wants $112 for 8.5x11" b&w aerial photos on the same page.

my city too offers the map of the drainage system here i just click the section and it will show me were to go.or i compare to google maps and find my target area

You are most lucky Zombi!