The practice of stormwater management is rapidly evolving at federal, state and local levels. Members of the design community in both the public and private sector are looking to permeable pavements as an environmental and sustainable method of mitigating stormwater. There is a considerable interest in permeable pavements as they are capable of reducing or even eliminating stormwater runoff while improving water quality. Permeable pavements hold a great deal of promise as they provide a 'built-in' solution by simply modifying or substituting the pavement surface and base materials used to construct pavements.
Pavers by Ideal has been manufacturing permeable pavers since 1990 and was involved in the Jordan Cove project in Connecticut at its inception in 1996. Test results from this site continue to support permeable pavers as an effective BMP for stormwater management. The Town of Waterford maintains the paver roadway with conventional street sweepers and snow plows. This is significant for property owners, as interlocking concrete permeable pavements do not require a special sweeping protocol to keep the pavement clean and draining.
Permeable pavers are being embraced for a full range of applications from residential walkways, patios and driveways, to commercial parking lots, to university and college plazas, walkways, and parking lots. A project at Bridgewater State College was able to receive Silver LEED certification with the help of Ideal's Aqua-Bric permeable paver and the US Department of Forest Service a Gold rating with the help of permeable pavement.
The University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center is expected to begin monitoring and testing a large interlocking concrete permeable pavement by late summer. The Stormwater Center at UNH is considered among the nation's foremost authority on stormwater for the research they have conducted on porous pavements and other BMPs. We have been working with the University for several years to get this important project "in the ground" and we look forward to their findings.
Ideal has a high commitment to providing up-to-the-date technical assistance and routinely offers permeable pavement seminars and Lunch-n-Learns for firms that wish to learn more about permeable concrete pavements.
Lawrence Nicolai, is senior vice president of Ideal Concrete Block Company/Pavers, Westford, Mass., 978-692-3076, www.idealconcreteblock.com