After my post about porous streets that were installed in a neighborhood in Oregon, I got an email from a resident that included photographic evidence of just how well the streets work at absorbing stormwater into the ground.

The water line indicates where the porous street ends and the regular pavement begins. Pretty cool, isn't it? More information about Pringle Creek is available here.

Good idea for reducing run-off, but will the water wash away the foundation of the road? Here in Hong Kong the concrete pavements are being replaced by bricks on a layer of sand, and the typhoon rains wash away the sand, causing the bricks to drop and the pavements to become uneven. Not good for a pavement, but a hazard for a road.

Posted by: Andy on February 4, 2008 6:13 AM

French regional motorways departments (DDE) have been testing and using these kind of roads for quite a long time and I have used a lot of them.

You can't really imagine what you gain in visibility and grip without all the water on the road !

The main problem i remember of was freezing. Water caught in the road when freezing would grow in size and break the structure of the road into tiny bits. Once unfrozen, those bits would just go away with your road.
One way or another this issue has been solved. I don't really know how

Posted by: litteuldav on February 4, 2008 9:53 AM

Erica, the Pringle Creek road is crowned with good side drainage. You wouldn't see water collect on it under any circumstances, no matter what material it was made from. Strong Road, the one in the foreground, is also crowned, and the low point where the two roads meet wasn't well drained.

The big puddle you're seeing is because Salem didn't build new drain infrastructure for Strong Road - it has little to do with the new road surface. The difference at Pringle Creek is in the volume of runoff.

Posted by: Ben Schiendelman on February 17, 2008 10:31 PM

Question. Wouldnt Pollution be a factor? The runnoff through the road would bring along material in the road with it thus polluting the groundwater. Wouldnt the material used for the roads effect the water running through it?

Posted by: kidd schwick on February 21, 2008 5:43 PM

Question. Wouldnt Pollution be a factor? The runnoff through the road would bring along material in the road with it thus polluting the groundwater. Wouldnt the material used for the roads effect the water running through it?

Posted by: kidd schwick on February 21, 2008 5:43 PM

Please note that comments will remain open for only 14 days after the article is posted. While previous comments will remain visible, attempts to post new comments after this period will fail. This helps stop comment spam, so your forebearance is appreciated.

The Worldchanging comments are meant to be used for further exploration and evaluation of the ideas covered in our posts. Please note that, while constructive disagreement is fine, insults and abuse are not, and will result in the comment being deleted and a likely ban from commenting. We will also delete at will and without warning comments we believe are designed to disrupt a conversation rather than contribute to it. In short, we'll kill troll posts.

Finally, please note that comments which simply repost copyrighted works or commercial messages will be summarily deleted.