Soils in the Falcon area typically consist of sand with a sandstone “shelf” anywhere from 5 to 15 feet deep.  Surface water (from rain and snow) percolates through the sand fairly quickly, and the water tends to perch on the sandstone shelf.  This leads to high groundwater throughout Falcon.

 

Before development of any infrastructure in Falcon Highlands, multiple soils bores revealed high levels of groundwater in the area.  Subsequently, the geotechnical firm who performed the soils investigation recommended to install underdrains for the proposed development. 

 

These recommendations were followed by the developer of Falcon Highlands, which include perforated “main” underdrains in the roadways and non-perforated “service” lines to the homes. 

 

Most, if not all homes in Falcon Highlands have a “French Drain” surrounding the foundations, which consists of perforated pipe to convey water from the residence to the underdrain service line and eventually into the main underdrain.  These drain systems are typically at or near the bottom of the foundation, and are also typically piped to a sump pit in the basement or crawl space.  It is typical to experience groundwater intrusion into the sump pit of a residence after rain events due to the nature of the soils discussed above.

 

The entirety of the underdrain system in Falcon Highlands was designed to convey groundwater from the French Drains surrounding the homes to the main underdrains in the roads, and eventually send that water into downstream drainage facilities.