Inspiration: Greening our alleys - Porous Concrete
You may have seen our post on the University of Cincinnati’s permeable walkways a year or so ago, and you may have heard that downtown Cincinnati now has the first permeable parking lot. Both are designed in a similar way to allow storm runoff and rainwater to seep into the ground and travel through soil to eventually, over time, end up in underground aquifers and the Ohio River.
This natural process allows the ground to filter the water of any polluted runoff rather than the storm water running into the storm water runoff systems and out into the Ohio River untreated. Reducing storm water in the system will also help Cincinnati meet its need to keep from having to spend billions reconstructing the current sewer system.
Chicago’s Green Alleys
The New York Times reported last year that Chicago has begun a program called the “Green Alley Initiative” where they use permeable concrete and porous asphalt to repave alleys. In effect, doing the same thing as the parking lot and the UC walkway, but using a little known material that is easy for the city to implement quickly.
Other benefits of the new materials include reflecting sun rather than absorbing it which will help reduce the heat-island effect of the city.
Cincinnati can do this too
We have hundreds of alleys in Cincinnati where we could be taking advantage of this same material. As a matter of fact, there are still a few in downtown where you can see that this idea isn’t a new one. The first permeable alleys were of bricks in the 1800’s. In a way, they were trying to do the same thing, take water off the street and keep their buggies from bogging down in the mud.
You don’t necessarily need to use complex technology to help control storm water runoff, consider using porous pavement.
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