The Red Brick Times

Porous asphalt paving installations that can store and control runoff of storm water has been in use for 20 years in some areas. Check out an article published by Stormwater (a journal about surface water quality) describing Porous Asphalt to see how parking areas and retention basins are combined into one system.

Also see an article about Pervious Concrete at the Concrete Parking organization web site.
Another article at Stormwater illustrates issues and concerns when installing pervious concrete at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
Posted 3:10 PM by Andy (1) comments

       Comments:

I would still favor concrete over asphalt for two reasons.

1) The lime content of concrete makes it act as a preliminary water softener. New Englanders would coat the inside of cisterns with cement to sweeten the water.

2) Asphalt is a petroleum product and leaches distillates which are carried in the runoff. I would think that is this the with porous versions also. It seems that the greater surface area in contact with the water due to fact of its porosity would exacerbate this characteristic.

Any step to eliminating the artificial sluices that streets and parking lots become whenever it rains (like the last week here)and utilizing natural filtration by the sub-soil is a step in the right direction.

PS - I'm actually enjoying this exchange. We should have more like it.

# posted by  A. O. : May 16, 2006 9:19 AM
 
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