News & Events
2012.09.12 - Seeing is Believing: Permeable Pavers Work!
Published on GoYounder.com - 9/12/2012
The addition of a permeable paver parking surface at the Metro Office Building demonstrates Nashville�s commitment toward sustainability and low impact development. This site also features Bioretention planting basins and allows Metro to showcase the best of stormwater controls to the development community as they come to the Metro Office Building campus to apply for permits for new projects throughout the Metro area. This project consists of about 40,000 square feet of Permeable Pavers installed in one of the largest public installations in the State of Tennessee. While the permeable pavers create a very attractive parking surface, they actually provide a very efficient means reintroducing rain water runoff back into the ground, reducing the amount of stormwater that would otherwise flow through stormwater drainage systems back to the Cumberland River.
This installation is being used to replace an aging parking surface of pervious asphalt. With Mayor Karl Dean watching, the Nashville Fire Department is sending out a large Engine (one of the largest in their fleet) to hook up to an onsite hydrant and to release 1,000s of gallons of water in an isolated area to illustrate the infiltration rates of the Permeable Pavement System as a whole. We are hooked up to the hydrant because the largest of trucks only carry around 2,000 gallons of water and this would disappear in a matter of minutes.
The hydrant allows for a continuous flow for several minutes, after which we dumped the entire contents of the tank on the parking surface, demonstrating how efficiently the paver surface is able to handle a large quantity of water with no runoff from the surface of the parking lot. The demonstration also showcased the structural capability of the parking surface, with its ability to support a large fire-fighting vehicle with a full load of water. Metro Government is pleased to use this state-of-the-art low impact method to demonstrate our commitment to using sustainable means for storm water management.