Look at what you are driving on.
Oct 13th, 2007 by sorbe
The University of Colorado is installing a porous parking lot. It sounds like it might be the first of its kind here in Boulder, and it’s located on the CU Campus, at University and 13th to the east of the Starbucks Coffee located on Broadway and University.
The assembly of construction includes:
1. A base layer of rock
2. An extruded black plastic grid
3. A top layer of recycled rock and tumbled recycled glass, and
4. A soil solidifier
At first glance the parking lot looks like it has regular stone on the surface; however closer inspection you can see small pieces of glass mixed into the surface.
CU is using this parking lot concept as an experimental process, and depending on how the parking lot holds up this winter with the snow plowing, they will consider incorporating additional porous parking lots. The benefit of porous lots is that when we receive moisture, it stays on the parking lot and is absorbed into the ground, rather than diverting water to city sewers. This helps to keep the sewers free of oil and gas.
The parking lot is currently being built. To get an in process view, make sure you visit this weekend, as the contractor will be done with the project, by the first of next week. If you’re interested in learning more about this and other processes, check out this article on a similar project in Maine.
What are you driving on?
This is a great idea, and I hope CU will implement it elsewhere. Naropa University actually installed a porous parking lot several years ago, at their downtown/Arapahoe campus, in the southwestern-most lot. It’s an open-cell concrete block style, similar to the one shown in a recent article on Treehugger.