Permeable Concrete Tested To Reduce City Street Flooding

The drainage system in New Orleans is so strained that after ten minutes of rainfall, cars wade through ponds on the street and pedestrians wear rubber boots just to reach the corner drugstore. To minimize those sloshes, city officials, along with green-builders Make It Right Foundation and others, are experimenting with pervious pavement--a porous material with an underlying layer that captures water and oily contaminants.

Cedric Grant, New Orleans Deputy Mayor of Facilities, Infrastructure and Community Development, said last week that the city is testing the benefits of using pervious concrete in the Lower Ninth Ward.

"About 300 feet of heavily deteriorated asphalt on North Prieur Street between Jourdan and Deslonde was repaved with pervious concrete this spring," he said. That was the first local, street application of the material. "The city partnered with Hard Rock Construction, Lafarge North America and the Make It Right Foundation to test this project."

University of New Orleans engineering students did the design work needed to pave the project's single, city block.

"At this time, the city is testing the installation of the newly paved road for strength and durability," and to see whether pervious concrete can drain water from streets, Grant said. He noted that "all Make It Right homes utilize pervious concrete sidewalks and driveways, totaling more than 35,000 square feet in the Lower Ninth Ward."

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Industry Feature: Addressing the industry need to create concrete testing equipment that can deliver accurate readings on virtually any concrete from any direction, on any surface without the need to compensate for impact direction, Switzerland-based Proceq announced today that it has launched the new SilverSchmidt concrete test hammer