Saturday, January 05, 2008

A road that is 25 feet wide and 12.21 miles long has the same surface area of the proposed mall's impervious surfaces.

That's more than enough to drive the 9.5 miles from Cheshire's town hall to the Brass Mill mall in Waterbury.

The W/S proposal will result in 37 acres being either paved over for parking or roofed over. In any case, these are impervious surfaces that result in total immediate water runoff.

Most people have no idea of the size of 37 acres of impervious surface and most people that have made or will make the decision on this application don't know how significant this is either.

If you can imagine a road that has an equivalent surface area, you get the picture. Since many secondary roads are 25 feet wide, how long of a road would it take to equal the surface area of 37 acres?

To calculate it, multiply 37 acres times the square feet in an acre, 44,560, divide that by a 25 foot wide road to to get the length of the road in feet and then divide that by 5,280 ft in a mile to get the length of the road in miles.

MR = 37 * 43,560 / 25/ 5,280
MR = 12.2 miles of road

Does anyone want to calculate how many gallons of water runoff would result from 1 inch of rain?

One cubic foot of water contains 7.48052 gallons
An acre is 43,560 sq ft.
One gallon of water weighs 8.3453 pounds.