Catch Basins & Channel Drains
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Northwest Louisiana · Caddo & Bossier Parish
Commercial drainage across Shreveport and Bossier City: parking lot catch basins, trench drains, retention ponds, LDEQ stormwater compliance. Engineered systems for retail, industrial, and municipal sites.
Commercial drainage in NW Louisiana operates under a different rule set than residential work: LDEQ's Stormwater Program applies once site disturbance exceeds 1 acre, City of Shreveport engineering approves post-construction runoff plans, and parking-lot geometry drives the whole design. The stakes are higher — a flooded lot means lost sales, and non-compliant discharge means an LDEQ notice.
Any commercial project that disturbs 1 acre or more triggers LDEQ's SWPPP (Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan) requirement under the LPDES Construction General Permit. Post-construction runoff controls are separately required — the discharge from the completed site cannot exceed pre-development runoff rates for design storms. City of Shreveport engineering reviews the drainage plan, requires a licensed engineer's stamp on the design, and inspects the completed system. The contractors we refer to for commercial work include drainage designers and installers who have shepherded projects through these reviews for years and know the local expectations.
Retail parking lots (strip centers, standalone retail, restaurants); light industrial sites and warehouses; multi-tenant office parks; apartment complexes; municipal facilities; church and school campuses. Each has different runoff volumes, different LDEQ classification, and different discharge options. A church that only fills its parking lot on Sunday can defensibly use a smaller retention system than a Walmart with continuous daytime traffic.
The workhorse pieces: heavy-duty concrete or polymer catch basins with H-20 rated grates at every low point; solid PVC or HDPE piping trunk lines sized for the design storm; trench drains across ramps and dock aprons; oil-water separators required at fueling and vehicle-maintenance sites; detention or retention ponds sized to hold peak runoff and release it over hours.
For sites over an acre, a retention pond or bioretention area is often required to hold and slowly release stormwater. Design is engineer-stamped: volume to hold the design storm, orifice sizing to release over 24-48 hours, spillway for larger events, planted bottom for biofiltration and infiltration. Bioretention (rain gardens on a commercial scale) is increasingly favored by City of Shreveport engineering as an alternative to pipe-and-pond systems where the site allows it. Both approaches need proper maintenance scheduling — sediment removal, plant management, orifice inspection.
LDEQ can and does inspect completed commercial drainage installations. Sites that fail to maintain post-construction controls (a plugged bioretention area, a full detention pond that no longer holds volume, a missing outlet-protection structure) receive Notices of Non-Compliance and, in serious cases, penalties. A maintenance schedule for parking lot drainage should include: quarterly catch-basin sump cleaning, annual retention pond inspection, and annual sediment survey. The contractors we refer to can build these maintenance rhythms into a service arrangement.
New construction: drainage is part of the site civil design from day one, integrated with grading, paving, and utilities. Retrofit: existing lot with drainage failures — flooding aisles, ponding at storefronts, sinkholes over failing pipes. Retrofits are trickier because they need to work within existing paving, curbs, and site elevations. Common retrofit fixes: adding catch basins at newly identified low points, installing trench drains across problem ramps, saw-cutting for new pipe runs, sometimes re-grading a section of lot.
Commercial drainage costs run wildly by site: a strip center adding 3 catch basins and a short trunk line might be $8,000-$18,000; a full new parking lot drainage system for a 2-acre site with detention pond will run $60,000-$180,000 depending on complexity. Engineering fees are typically 8-15% of construction cost for stamped design. All commercial jobs get scoped and quoted on site — no rule-of-thumb pricing survives contact with an actual parking lot.
The referral network includes both civil engineers and licensed contractors. On projects requiring stamped design, we can coordinate an engineer and an installer or work with your existing engineer.
From a single catch basin retrofit on a small strip center up to full new-construction site drainage on multi-acre commercial properties. Very small jobs may be handled solo; larger jobs typically involve GC coordination.
Yes. Recurring maintenance schedules and multi-site portfolios are welcome. Property managers appreciate that a single contact can handle multiple sites across Caddo and Bossier Parish.
Small retrofit: 1-2 weeks. Full parking lot system: 6-12 weeks depending on engineering, permitting, and weather. Retention pond construction: 3-6 weeks on top of everything else.
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Coordinated by the same referral network across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Northwest Louisiana.
Tell a local coordinator what's going on. Free callback typically the same business day.
Request a Callback