ADS UK manager on SuDS sediment management: design lessons for drainage engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on New Civil Engineer
30 Second Briefing
A historical focus on water quantity over water quality in sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) is leading to poor sediment management, argues Stuart Crisp, UK manager at Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS). Crisp points to designs that size attenuation tanks and oversized pipes for peak flow while neglecting silt capture, pre-treatment and accessible maintenance points, allowing fine sediments to clog geocellular units and perforated pipes. He calls for SuDS layouts that integrate upstream sediment forebays, filter media and realistic maintenance access to protect long-term hydraulic capacity and water quality performance.
Technical Brief
- Stuart Crisp, UK manager at Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS), frames the issue from a product-performance and asset-longevity perspective.
Our Take
Advanced Drainage Systems and Stuart Crisp now feature in several SuDS-focused op-eds in our infrastructure database, signalling a concerted push to influence UK guidance where, as one February 2026 piece noted, there is still a regulatory gap around mandatory sustainable drainage.
Taken together with Crisp’s January 2026 article on early SuDS design choices, this latest focus on sediment management underlines that ADS is targeting the front-end of drainage design workflows in the United Kingdom, where small specification decisions can lock in long-term maintenance and safety liabilities for asset owners.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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