How Flood Tunnels Work

🥑 Simplify your dinners with code PRACTICAL16 at bit.ly/3Ws1PYm 📚 Did you know I wrote a book? There are still some signed copies left at store.practical.engineering/

I love this channel because it legit tells me about these cool civil engineering systems and areas if study I had no idea actually existed...

I think one important consideration that isn't modelled in your model is that the bottom of building basements and subway tunnels is significantly below the point where river banks overflow so even just a few centimeters above the bank can fill up whole basements.

They had to build something similar to the Tokyo system here in Dallas when they rebuilt hwy 75 during the 90s. The highway got moved from the surface down into a huge concrete canyon that can collect rainwater faster than any feasible storm drainage system could handle. There are massive underground caverns 100ft below Uptown to store it until it can be safely released into the storm drainage system (Cole Park Storm Water Detention Vault). It's so well hidden that basically no one knows it exists.

Grady, these vids are the reason you are in a league of your own. No one is able to explain in such detail from experience and have the handy-ness to build something to visualize what you are talking about. Top notch effort my man, you deserve all the success.

I was at a concert in waterloo park last week and was wondering this exact thing

I am a mechanical engineer and I hated my civil engineering courses in college but man do I love these videos. Keep up the great work Grady 😁

This is the only channel that can make a 15 minute video about an underground tube, and keep me captivated from start to end.

Thank you for mentioning the metric units too. It really helps 😊👍

As a person who lives in Vienna, I suggest you have a look how we figured out to manage floods from the danube river... ;)

Interesting, thanks. I have driven through the Kuala Lumpur SMART tunnel in Malaysia which is a multi-use tunnel allowing water and traffic movement and I believe has proven to be of great value since its commissioning.

This is awesome. My dad was the District Engineer for the Corps of Engineers when San Antonio was building their tunnel. It was awesome to get lowered by a crane in a man cage down the bore and see the TBM. Very cool stuff. Thanks for the memories!

Top quality content as always! I really love the discussion of real world examples coupled with your home-made example creations! If anyone out there is wondering, Grady's book is similarly awesome!

I know learning about infrastructure is the point, and it’s still mainly why I enjoy this channel, but I also have to say, I love the glimpses we’ve gotten of your family growing in the Hello Fresh ad segments over the years too. What a lovely little household you have, Grady!

I had no idea flood tunnels existed. I knew about storm drains and tunnels, but even living in Kansas City, Missouri - which is notorious for flooding - I had never learned about flood tunnels! Thanks so much! I've learned so much from your channel, and now that I understand their functionalities, I really appreciate the infrastructure in my city so much more.

Tokyo's underground thing is SO AMAZING if you ever take a trip to Japan you have to do a video on it because it is amazing

This is really interesting to see, many years ago I accompanied a group of high school students learning about local flood mitigation projects around Maitland NSW Australia (some which were completed and some which were planned or still under construction). Maitland still floods somewhat during extreme rain events but nowhere near as much as the infamous flood event of 1955 which was the catalyst for nearly 70 years of flood mitigation projects since then.

The sparkly water in the demo is so cool and pretty! It makes it easy to see the flow and turbulence too. Thanks for the video :)

I dont know why but ive always liked water drainage systems. Most kinds of engineering are cool, but theirs something special about structures that control water. It always just reminds me of when i was 5 in my gravel driveway, digging channels from one flooded pothole to the next and watching it flow, then trying to see how many rocks i needed to plug the stream or make it take a route i wanted. If i had acrylic models like yours when i was 5, I'd probably be studying civil engineering rather than history right now lol.

Note that flood diversion can be done in two dimensions as well - see the Red River Floodway that diverts stormwater around the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. It's essentially a large ditch that loops around the city to the east; if the river (flowing into the city from the south) overflows, the floodway takes the excess and returns it to the riverbed well north of the city where it can safely drain to Lake Winnipeg.