Pervious Pavement 1

Avoid pervious pavement if you have:

1. "plastic" clay soils (generally, PI > 35),
2. distinct wet and dry seasons, with droughts possible, and
3. a base course that's less than 10 or 12 inches thick.

You may also want to avoid this pavement type where freeze/thaw is a problem. (That's a guess - anyone with relevant experience want to chime in?)

Pervious pavements deteriorate very quickly under these conditions; you would be better off with gravel (or base alone.) And I would forget about pervious pavements in service drives - unless you plan to use a high strength paver system and a very thick, strong base.



Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

This article should give you a fairly comprehensive overview of porous pavement:

Found a monitoring study from UW recently that addresses long term performance issues, here is the link (Benjamin O. Brattebo and Derek B. Booth, 2003):


Here is the Abstract
This study examined the long-term effectiveness of permeable pavement as an alternative
to traditional impervious asphalt pavement in a parking area. Four commercially
available permeable pavement systems were evaluated after six years of daily parking
usage for structural durability, ability to infiltrate precipitation, and impacts on infiltrate
water quality. All four permeable pavement systems showed no major signs of wear.
Virtually all rainwater infiltrated through the permeable pavements, with almost no
surface runoff. The infiltrated water had significantly lower levels of copper and zinc
than the direct surface runoff from the asphalt area. Motor oil was detected in 89% of
samples from the asphalt runoff but not in any water sample infiltrated through the
permeable pavement. Neither lead nor diesel fuel were detected in any sample. Infiltrate
measured five years earlier displayed significantly higher concentrations of zinc and
significantly lower concentrations of copper and lead.