An unconventional stormwater solution for Renton, Washington
The City of Renton, Washington needed a compact and cost-effective solution to manage stormwater in a space-constrained area
Rising to the challenge, CRH companies collaborated to deliver a fully integrated, end-to-end system that met the city’s environmental and logistical needs. In a standout example of engineering ingenuity, the team repurposed box culverts—installed upside down—to function as treatment basins. This unconventional approach allowed for efficient capture, treatment and restoration of stormwater within a single location, showcasing CRH’s ability to innovate under complex conditions.
Project Snapshot
Location: Washington, USA
Product Type: Infrastructure Products
Integrated approach solves stormwater challenge in Washington
The best of CRH’s expertise, teamwork and innovation solved a customer’s need for a bespoke solution for stormwater storage and treatment in the Seattle suburb of Renton, Washington.
Downtown Renton is growing, and new housing development created an imminent and future need for stormwater infrastructure in the Monroe Avenue area. CRH companies Oldcastle Infrastructure, Ash Grove Cement and ICON Materials collaborated on an unconventional and effective way for this municipal customer to collect, treat and reintroduce the area’s abundant rainfall. CRH’s capabilities offered the customer a one-stop solution for design, materials and installation.
The impact of stormwater
For many growing cities like Renton, with development comes opportunity but also impermeable surfaces where soft, absorbent ground used to be. Stormwater buildup can become a flooding issue and nuisance for traffic. It can cause erosion and contamination issues that impact the natural environment.
Increasingly, devastating floods in the U.S. and Europe spotlight unprecedented flooding and stormwater management challenges and costly economic effects that face many communities. In the U.S. alone, flooding in 2023 resulted in at least $69 billion in infrastructure upgrades.
To help meet the need for stormwater management, CRH offers vital solutions that capture, distribute and treat water and defend against floods. They protect people, infrastructure and the environment from flood risks and resulting economic damage.
A collaborative solution
The Renton project necessitated a cost-effective solution, delivered in a relatively small space, within the customer’s required timeframe.
Oldcastle Infrastructure manufactures three-sided concrete box culverts, the same structures that support bridges over waterways and create fish passages that help keep aquatic ecosystems healthy. For the Renton project, the team creatively used the box culverts for an additional purpose—as basins for water treatment. This space-efficient innovation kept the project footprint and engineering and installation costs to a minimum and enabled the team to install the structures in just two weeks.
The uniquely designed solution also included an Oldcastle Infrastructure proprietary BioPod™ Biofiltration System with StormMix™ Media that treats and filters stormwater onsite so it can then be returned to the environment in a controlled manner.
“Our design and production teams decided that the safest and most cost-effective way to build a treatment vault of this magnitude was to flip a three-sided box culvert upside down to build the body of the BioPod,” said Casey Krapfl, water sales engineer for Oldcastle Infrastructure.
ICON Materials provided and delivered recycled aggregate for the base and recycled asphalt paving around the BioPod. Ash Grove supplied the cement used to manufacture the culverts.
The collaborative solution met the customer’s need. “Renton can now treat and restore stormwater at a single location and put it into a system that infiltrates it back into the environment in a natural way,” Krapfl said.
Results
“The result really highlights our large-scale water treatment ability,” said Anna Deiters, solutions engineer team lead for Oldcastle Infrastructure. “We can create any size water treatment solution, and we have a vast ability to customize, even in a state like Washington, where regulations are most stringent.”
“This project worked because it was a collaborative effort,” said Mitchell McKay, structural engineering manager for Oldcastle Infrastructure. “We showed that we’ll find the best solution for our customers, utilizing products in an unconventional way if necessary. And that’s part of being passionate about what we do.”
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