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Pervious Concrete Pavements:

he Ontario Ministry of Transportation (MTO) continues to actively pursue the use of pervious concrete to build environmentally sustainable low traffic-volume pavements. In 2009, Road Talk reported on the ministrys first pervious concrete pavement trial on a commuter lot near the City of Guelph, Ontario. Road Talk also reported on the ministrys proposal to develop industry standards for the construction of pervious concrete pavement. Since then, the ministry has completed a GO Transit commuter parking lot at the Williams Parkway interchange on Highway 410, in Brampton, in July 2011, and is currently working in partnership with Simcoe County to complete a pervious concrete commuter parking lot along Highway 26 northwest of Barrie. These projects are being used to further foster the introduction of this innovative technology in Ontario and advance construction practices in consultation with industry. The ministry plans to continue to evaluate the field performance of pervious concrete pavements and acceptance test methods, to develop best practices. Responding to the strong interest from the Ontario municipal sector, conservation authorities and green innovators, the ministry used the lessons learned from the first trial to develop an Ontario Provincial Standard Specification for pervious concrete construction, released November 2010. The ministry hopes the availability of an Ontario Provincial Standard Specification for pervious concrete construction will lead to broader application of this innovative technology. Pervious Concrete Pavement, an Emerging Green Technology Pervious concrete pavements are an innovative concrete technology intended to reduce the impact of the roadway footprint and benefit the growing urban environment. They create pavement surfaces useful for many low-traffic applications, including parking lots and walkways that are more environmentally friendly than conventional impermeable surfaces. Pervious concrete is a low slump, open-graded mix composed of Portland cement, supplementary cementing materials, coarse aggregate with little or no fines, admixtures and water. The high void content (15% to 25%) and the presence of inter-connected pores result in a free-draining pavement layer that allows water to drain directly into the sub-grade, recharging the groundwater and providing an opportunity to eliminate or reduce storm water management devices such as ponds and swales.

MTOs Commitment to Building Sustainable Infrastructure

Figure 1. MTOs second application of pervious concrete pavement: the GO Transit commuter parking lot at Highway 410 and Williams Parkway in Brampton, Ontario.

In the United States, pervious concrete is a best management practice that meets the Environmental Protection Agency requirements for storm water runoff, and is LEED (Leadership Energy and Environmental Design) recognized. Pervious concrete pavements: Eliminate or reduce surface runoff, minimizing the risk of flooding and the presence of a potential drowning hazard; Eliminate mosquito-breeding habitat associated with standing water in ditches, helping to control the spread of the West Nile virus; Reduce heat island effect and associated heating of storm water. Conventional paving materials can reach summertime temperatures of 50C to 65C, transferring excess heat to the air above them and heating storm water as it runs across pavements. Pervious pavement avoids warming water as it enters the ecosystem minimizing impact on cold-water streams, rivers and fish habitat; and Enhance vegetation growth by allowing a greater amount of water and air to pass through the pavement and into the ground. Design and Specifications for the Brampton Commuter Lot The ministry revised the construction and material specifications based on outcome recommendations of the first trial in Guelph. For instance, the Guelph trial was placed during cold weather with a bridge deck finishing machine and longitudinal and transverse joints were constructed using a steel roller with a bevelled fin. The pavement later experienced ravelling due to loss of aggregate >
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from the concrete surface. To improve the surface texture and reduce the risk of ravelling, admixtures including viscosity modifiers were added to the concrete mix; control joints were eliminated and strict placement temperature limits were imposed to improve curing. The specification used for the Brampton project was similar to the recently developed Ontario Provincial Standard Specification. The pavement design for the Brampton commuter lot included both hydrological and structural components. The design used readily available industry accepted design software and incorporated conservative geotechnical and hydrologic assumptions. The hydrological design followed the guidelines of the Pervious Concrete Hydrological Design Software distributed by the Portland Cement Association. Ensuring that the granular base provided adequate drainage and water storage to prevent undrained water freezing in the pervious concrete layer were among the design considerations. The structural design followed the guidelines of the StreetPave software distributed by the American Concrete Paving Association. Select Sub-grade Material, which is essentially a sandy fill material, was specified where imported fill was required. The final pervious concrete pavement design consisted of 190 mm of pervious concrete placed over 200 mm of open granular base. The overall design thickness was the same as the original hot mix pavement design thickness of 90 mm hot mix over 300 mm granular sub-base. Pervious Concrete Requirements for the Brampton Commuter Lot The pervious concrete specification contained a number of material requirements. The coarse aggregate was required to have a maximum nominal aggregate size less than or equal to 13.2 mm. The smaller maximum aggregate size has potential to improve mix stability as well as provide an improved surface texture for pedestrians. The paste was required to be adequately air entrained to provide freeze-thaw resistance. The in-place pervious concrete was required to achieve a minimum average core compressive strength of 15 MPa at 28 days and void content between 15 to 25 per cent, with no surface ravelling upon visual inspection. Other requirements included the successful completion of a 10-metre long trial slab to demonstrate the contractors ability to produce, place, finish, and cure the specific pervious concrete mix, prior to proceeding with the work. In addition, the contractor or sub-contractor responsible for the pervious concrete placement was required to have an individual certified by the National Ready Mix Concrete Association Pervious Concrete Contractor Certification Program. Construction at the Brampton Commuter Lot All other site construction including landscaping was completed prior to the start of pervious concrete placement to avoid any potential contamination, premature plugging or damage to the pervious concrete.
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During construction, concrete trucks discharged their loads into a conveyor from the finished asphalt roadway, thus ensuring no disturbance to the Granular O and granular base granular layers. Prior to placing the concrete, the sub-grade was pre-wetted to prevent moisture loss from the plastic pervious concrete. A conveyor placed the concrete in front of a hydraulically actuated roller screed which was supported by fixed forms, edges of completed pervious concrete pavement, or curb and gutter as shown in Figure 2. When pavement edges were used for support, a protective flashing was placed on the edges to reduce the risk of the spinning roller screed damaging the edge.

Figure 2. Hydraulic roller screed running along pervious concrete and curb and gutter.

Post Construction A pristine pervious concrete finished surface was achieved by installing it as the last construction item at the Brampton site to avoid damage from construction equipment or contamination by construction materials or landscaping. Pervious concrete pavements are typically designed for light vehicles only. Based on a post-construction recommendation, a height restriction barrier was installed at the site to ensure that heavy vehicles do not gain access to the commuter lot. Aside from a few isolated construction related issues, visual observations conducted after the first winter in February 2012, showed the pervious concrete to be in excellent condition as shown in Figure 3. Final acceptance for the pervious concrete pavement will be based on visual inspection for surface irregularities and ravelling after warranty inspections. Innovation Investigation and Monitoring MTO, in joint efforts with the University of Waterloo and University of Guelph, is actively monitoring the performance of numerous pervious pavement parking lots across Canada. Sensors have been installed to monitor water temperature, identify >

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M I N I S T R Y O F T R A N S P O R T A T I O N

MTOs Commitment to Building Sustainable Infrastructure, continued

major contaminants, and compare rainfall quality to the storm water quality after filtration through the pavement. The goal of water quality monitoring is to determine the effectiveness of the pervious concrete system in removing contaminants, develop maintenance strategies, and confirm the anticipated environmental benefits. The ministry is investigating test methods to assess longterm pavement performance including using a light weight deflectometer to predict in-place resistance to ravelling and petrographic examination to assess the air void structure of the concrete paste. The ministry, in partnership with the Ready Mixed Concrete Association of Ontario, recently completed a void correlation test program with 12 Ontario testing laboratories participating. Conclusion Knowledge acquired from ministrys pervious concrete projects have been used to make changes to ministrys specifications and industry construction practices, and contributed to the development of Ontario Provincial Standard Specification OPS 356 Construction Specification for Pervious Concrete Pavement for Low-Volume Traffic Applications, November 2010. In addition to publishing in Road Talk, the ministry promotes technology transfer to other agencies and industry through publication of peer-reviewed papers, presentations and conferences. A technical paper titled Evolution of Pervious Concrete Pavement at the MTO has been submitted for presentation at the upcoming MTO sponsored 10th International Conference on Concrete Pavement, in Quebec City, July 8 to 12, 2012. Earlier work was also presented at an international conference in 2010. MTO strongly supports the creation of sustainable infrastructure and pervious concrete pavements are a promising new green technology for building environmentally sustainable low volume pavements in Ontario. The ministry plans to continue to build on lessons learned from these installations.
Figure 3. Brampton GO Transit commuter parking lot at Highway 410 and Williams Parkway: after the first winter, February 2012.

For further information please contact: David Rhead, P.Eng. MBA, Senior Concrete Engineer, at (416) 235-3710, or by email at: David.Rhead@Ontario.ca