Irvington High School of Fremont, California was voted “America’s Greenest School” in a 2009 national student essay contest. To extend Irvington’s elite
green status, Fremont Unified School District hired U&R to design a new parking lot using pervious pavement. Pervious pavement is a very new technology. This pavement has voids in it to allow stormwater to actually drain through the hard surface! Pervious or porous concrete pavements are a unique and effective means to support green, sustainable growth. By capturing stormwater and allowing it to seep into the ground, porous concrete is instrumental in recharging groundwater, reducing stormwater runoff, and meeting strict stormwater regulations.
“A pervious concrete mixture contains little or no sand,” says U&R principal engineer Dave Voorhies who is now a certified NRMCA Pervious Concrete Technician. “It requires a careful mix of ingredients to bind the aggregate particles together, creating a system of interconnected voids that allows water to drain through.” And because the surface didn’t need to slope for drainage, we were able to save on cost of grading and storm drains.
Faculty and students could barely believe their eyes when it started to rain and they didn’t see any water on the surface. Not just green, but very, very cool!
