Civil PE Stamp in Los Angeles, CA: Grading, Drainage, and LID Design

The low-impact development review is engineering, not landscaping with a nicer name. I start with the site's soils: infiltration testing results determine whether bioretention and infiltration facilities are feasible, and the PE checks the facility sizing calculations against those measured rates rather than textbook values. Each LID facility gets verified — tributary area, storage volume, drawdown time, overflow routing for storms beyond the design event — and the maintenance provisions get a real read, because a bioretention planter that cannot be maintained is a future failure the seal should not bless. Where the project documents infiltration infeasibility, I check that the alternative compliance path follows the city's hierarchy correctly. The sealed LID design proves the site manages its stormwater quality as the regulations require, with calculations the LADBS reviewer can audit.

The grading review verifies proposed contours and spot elevations for positive drainage away from every structure, with no trapped low points and no concentrated flows directed at neighboring properties. Hydraulic calculations get independently checked: inlets, pipes, channels, and any detention sized for the design storms with the city's criteria. On hillsides, the review coordinates with the geotechnical recommendations on slopes and retaining, and with the structural drawings on walls and foundations — I reconcile the civil and structural sheets directly, since a retaining wall that exists on one set and not the other is a classic correction. Erosion and sediment controls cover the construction phase. The sealed civil set should let a contractor build exactly what the calculations assumed; the PE's review certifies that agreement across grading, drainage, LID, and utilities.

A Los Angeles civil package is ready for the PE's review — and then for ePlanLA — when these items are resolved. Stormwater quality and proven hydraulics lead. • LID facilities sized from measured infiltration rates, with overflow and maintenance detailed • Drainage area map complete; hydrologic and hydraulic calculations verified • Grading plan with positive drainage away from structures, no trapped low points • Hillside grading per geotechnical recommendations, coordinated with structural retaining design • Utility plans coordinated with the MEP design on connection points and capacities • Erosion and sediment control plan covering the construction phase