Castle Road Self Storage — Self-Storage Complex Civil Engineering in Waller, TX
Waller · Harris County · Texas
Commercial & Retail Development
Civil engineering for a multi-building self-storage complex in Harris County
JRH Engineering provided complete civil engineering design for a self-storage complex in Waller, Texas, where an existing drainage channel running through the property was limiting usable land and complicating the site layout. JRH rerouted the drainage channel around the property perimeter, freeing the interior for maximum storage building coverage, and designed a pumped detention system that reduced the pond footprint further — keeping rentable square footage as high as possible.
AT A GLANCE
Site civil design
Full site civil design for a multi-building self-storage complex including building layout, grading, paving, and access
Existing drainage channel rerouted around the property perimeter — the interior of the site cleared of the drainage constraint and made available for storage buildings
Pumped detention system designed to replace a traditional gravity pond — a smaller footprint and more rentable square footage
Building layout maximized interior site coverage after channel rerouting
Utility infrastructure
Water served by private well — no municipal water connection required
No sanitary sewer required for self-storage use — utility permitting simplified significantly
Absence of a sanitary requirement removed an entire utility permit track from the projec
Stormwater and drainage
Existing drainage channel rerouted to the perimeter — channel alignment redesigned to follow the property boundary rather than bisecting the site
Pumped detention system minimized the pond footprint compared to a gravity detention approach
Harris County drainage approval secured for both the channel reroute and the new detention system
Permitting and agency coordination
Harris County permitting for the drainage channel reroute and detention design completed concurrently
Well permitting handled separately from Harris County drainage approval — no conflicts between utility and drainage review timelines
Absence of a sanitary requirement simplified the overall permit package
The Challenge — a drainage channel bisecting a revenue-per-acre business
Storage facilities depend on maximizing the number of units per acre — every square foot consumed by a drainage channel is a square foot that cannot generate revenue. Leaving the channel in place and building around it would have produced an inefficient layout with dead zones between building rows.
JRH’s Approach — move the channel, then shrink the pond
JRH rerouted the channel to the property perimeter, converting the interior of the site from bisected and constrained to open and buildable. With the interior cleared, the storage building layout could maximize unit count across the full width of the site. A pumped detention system replaced a gravity pond, reducing the detention footprint further. The absence of sanitary sewer requirements for self-storage use simplified the utility side of the permit package.
The Results
01
Interior site fully cleared for storage buildings — the existing drainage channel was rerouted to the property perimeter
02
Detention footprint minimized through a pumped system — more rentable square footage per acre
03
Detention footprint minimized through a pumped system — more rentable square footage per acre
04
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the main engineering challenge on the Castle Road Self Storage project?
An existing drainage channel ran through the middle of the site, limiting usable land and threatening to create an inefficient storage building layout with dead zones between rows.
How did JRH Engineering maximize storage capacity at Castle Road?
JRH rerouted the drainage channel to the property perimeter, opening the full interior for storage buildings, and designed a pumped detention system to further reduce the pond footprint.
What were the results of the Castle Road Self Storage project?
JRH cleared the full interior site for storage buildings, minimized the detention footprint through a pumped system, and eliminated sanitary sewer permitting entirely since self-storage use required no sewer connection.