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Pavement that’s porous gains ground

Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 30, 2008 at 3:15 pm

A shout out to the Sisweb for this one! From The Boston Globe:

Joni Mitchell vilified builders in her 1970s hit song, “Big Yellow Taxi,” knocking them for paving paradise to put up parking lots. The asphalt going in at 585 Middlesex St. in Lowell probably wouldn’t have changed the singer-songwriter’s message, but it might have given her pause with the lyrics.

The parking lot at the new headquarters of Nobis Engineering Inc. is being installed with an environmentally friendly asphalt called porous pavement. By letting rainwater seep through to filtration beds, porous pavement is correcting a pollution problem called road runoff, which is of particular concern in the densely populated, heavily traveled Merrimack Valley.

“More and more every day, porous pavement is proving itself to be an environmentally sound method of putting down paving material,” said Scott Colby, environmental and estates manager for Saugus-based Aggregate Industries Inc., the paving company doing the work for Nobis. “Using porous pavement, you can recharge ground water much better, and in the winter it doesn’t freeze up like regular pavement does. The material works quite well.”

Read more from the Boston Globe by clicking here.

October 30, 2008 · Filed Under Great Green Ideas

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