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 “Rice
Crispy” Concrete Safeguarding Many Communities from
Storm Water Runoff
Auburn, Jan 22, 2004 --- It looks like a rice crispy treat and leaks like a sieve,
which is precisely why it’s so attractive to a growing
number of Alabama communities.
It’s
called pervious concrete, one of several new
environmentally friendly technologies developed in
recent years to help communities better manage the
myriad of problems associated with storm water runoff.
The
thinking behind this new material is based on a simple
premise, according to one expert who is working with
communities throughout the state to adopt it and similar
technologies.
“Pervious concrete has a lot more void space, so it’s a
lot chunkier. That’s why it looks so much like a rice
crispy treat,” said Eve Brantley, a water quality agent
with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System’s Water
Quality Program.
These
voids allow rainwater to pass right through the concrete
rather than off of it, she said, which is exactly what
developers had in mind when they designed it. Water
percolates down into the ground rather than washing
off.
Several
Alabama communities already have weighed the merits of
pervious concrete and like what they have seen. And the
merits do have to be weighed because pervious concrete
isn’t for everyone.
“It may
accommodate parking for standard-sized vehicles ---
certainly not 18-wheelers --- and is typically used for
areas of low traffic, parking lots or walkways.”
“There
was even a concern for a while that women would get
their high-heel shoes stuck in it, but that’s not been
the case,” Brantley said.
Also,
people who employ a similar form of porous surfaces,
known as plastic pavers, often face the challenge of
persuading people to park on them, especially after
weeds have spouted through the gravel, she said.
Even
so, after exploring all the pros and cons, city planners
in Fairhope decided to begin experimenting with pervious
concrete. They worked with Sherman Concrete, Brantley
and other water quality
professionals to install the city’s first
permeable sidewalk near its new justice center. The
site was subsequently used as a demonstration project by
the Coastal Alabama Clean Water Partnership to encourage
other public and private institutions throughout the
Gulf Coast to adopt these kinds of practices.
Permeable surfaces are increasing along the
Gulf
Coast.
Nearby, the
Fairhope
United Methodist Church
installed
plastic grid pavers. Closely resembling honeycombs, the
pavers are sprinkled with gravel to accommodate the
church’s overflow parking. Plastic pavers installed at
Ladd People’s Stadium in Mobile also have greatly
reduced flooding.
“Rarely
does the stadium manager ever see water buildup in his
detention basin,” Brantley said. “It infiltrates rapidly
into the ground before most of it ever reaches the
basin.”
Permeable surfaces are only one of several technologies
now being used to address the increasingly daunting
challenge of controlling storm water drainage problems.
One other increasingly popular approach involves rain
gardens, which combine a subtle form of storm water
treatment with attractive landscaping.
“They
can look like a flower garden or a plain grass field
depending on the purpose you have in mind,” Brantley
said. “It can handle a little bit of drought and a
little bit of flooding. What you’re doing is allowing
the water to pool up in these retention areas so it can
percolate down.”
Recently, Brantley’s Extension Water Quality Program
received a USDA grant to work with the Auburn University
Department of Landscaping Architecture to encourage more
communities throughout the state to adopt rain gardens
and similar forms of storm water management. Projects
already are under way in Alexander City and Brewton.
[Source: Eve Brantley,
Alabama Cooperative Extension System Water Quality
Agent, (334) 844-3927; Writer:
Jim Langcuster,
Extension News and Public Affairs Specialist, (334)
844-5686.]
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