Project title: Investigation of stormwater quality improvements utilizing permeable pavement and/or the porous friction course (PFC)

747041153

Technical report; Sept. 2006-Aug. 2010.

NTL-ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT-Environment Impacts ; NTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Soils and Geology ; NTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Pavement Management and Performance ; NTL-HIGHWAY/ROAD TRANSPORTATION-Materials ;

This report describes research into the water quality and hydraulics of the Permeable Friction Course (PFC). Water quality monitoring of 3 locations in the Austin area indicates up to a 90 percent reduction in pollutant discharges from PFC compared to conventional pavement. This reduction is the result of accumulation of pollutants within the pavement and the reduction in pollutants washed off of vehicles during storm events. The project also developed a methodology for measuring permeability of the pavement in situ. The required overcoming several instances where conventional assumptions in permeability measurements were violated. In particular, flow through the pavement at the heads evaluated was nonlinear and not consistent with Darcy’s law. One dimensional steady state and two dimensional dynamic models of flow in PFC were developed. The latter model is capable of predicting surface and subsurface flow from highways of various geometries.

US Transportation Collection