The Real-World Advantages and Disadvantages of Permeable Pavement as Roadways

I09 1

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Abstract

Porous asphalt has been used very successfully in Europe for over fifty years, but has not yet become a prevent transportation material here in the United States mainly because of limited contractor knowledge and initial failures of roadway applications. Porous asphalt is slowly growing to become a sustainable technology that can be used here in the United States to reclaim water resources, reduce pollution, and reduce construction costs for urbanized roads and many parking lots. This paper compiles various theoretical advantages and disadvantages of porous asphalts with real world case studies of its uses here in the United States. The choice of using porous pavement technology for a site may depend heavily on pre-existing site conditions and the availability of design and material resources. The future of porous pavement will be determined by trial and error experimentation and evaluation in the paving field. The long-term effects of the weather on the durability of the roads and the effects of porous pavement chemicals on the environment under harsh conditions are still questionable, but are far outweighed by the long term potential benefits that porous pavements holds environmentally and economically for people willing to invest the time and initial construction cost. From the many United States case studies this paper concludes that the additional capital and maintenance costs of porous pavements are compensated by environmental, noise, and safety advantages in the urban environment, but are not usually economically feasible in rural applications.