I was walking around the other day looking into the hillside thinking about benching a slope. For those not familiar with the word, benching, it’s when you put a swale with a minimum slope for self cleaning on a 2:1 slope that is higher than 30′. This swale then drains to a downdrain which can be connected with multiple swales located on the slope. The downdrain than leads to a stormdrain or street.

What always amazes me is how someone who doesn’t understand how to design these would take the benching and slope for granted. I have worked on some very large planning phases of subdivisions and this was always a very very complicated thing to make work. Not only is the designer making a street work with the mountain, but they also have to get as many rough pads as possible. Not to mention making a street on the toe of the slope work with the street located at the top of the slope and then factoring in if it’s possible to make a rough pad in there. A designer must also keep in mind that a larger bench gets put in for slopes that are higher than 100′ which loses even more valuable space. I really liked this part of the design as it’s very difficult to make work, but once it works the plans look like some kind of beautiful artwork.

Next time you drive or walk around a hillside development make sure to take a look at this very complicated design. And imagine someone trying to make their magic work on the plans, which from what I have seen is always done by hand before going into the computer.