"Porous alley"

[wispfox]

This[1] seems like a fabulous thing!

"Nearly all buildings constructed on filled land in the South End and other similarly developed neighborhoods in Boston are supported on wood pilings. These pilings will last for centuries if they remain submerged in groundwater. However, if groundwater levels drop, the tops of the piles are attacked by microbes and eventually rot, which result in severe foundation problems for supported buildings. In addition to declining groundwater levels, stormwater runoff that flows over the paved sections of the South End contributes pollution to receiving waters nearby."

"The project, engineered by VHB, involved retrofitting a section of the alley way with porous asphalt to filter the stormwater from the adjoining area and recharge groundwater. While the project involved repaving the entire alley way, only the publicly owned part of the Alley was retrofitted with porous asphalt. The retrofit allows for increased area groundwater recharge and also filters stormwater naturally into the ground, rather than funnel the polluted runoff into nearby receiving water bodies. The construction on the project was completed by late summer of 2014."

Given troubles with loss of groundwater - especially in place where there used to be swamp that got replaced with asphault - and the fact that the water that used to be supplying those locations is instead getting polluted and requiring far more energy-intensive actions to make use of it, this seems like a _really_ good idea. I hope it both works well and gets implemented in far more locations!

(the ground is an excellent place to store water, and swamps and marshes help clean water)

[1] http://www.crwa.org/blue-cities/demonstration-projects/porous-alley

Comments

[mrf-arch.livejournal.com]

Porous pavement is pretty neat. The biggest problem so far is that it needs to be maintained a bit differently from the usual stuff (mostly, you have to clean it of fines and sand that block the pores every now and then) and that seems to be surprisingly hard for many public works organizations.

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

that does sound like a brilliant idea! will have to read up on it; thanks for the pointer.

[squirrelitude]

I'd heard of porous pavement for parking lots, but this application for alleys is really clever!