(NAPSA)—There are two simple things you can do to improve your home, your neighborhood and the world at large. One is to make sure your walkway, driveway and patio are made of an attractive and environmentally friendly material. The other is to get the community to do the same for roads, streets, parking lots and municipal building areas. Fortunately, there’s one thing that can meet both needs. Because controlling the quantity and quality of on-site runoff is a major concern across America, design professionals and engineers are constantly searching for sustainable approaches to site development. Manybelieve they’ve found it in permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP), a fast-growing, sustainable design approach to stormwater management. The system starts with solid concrete pavers placed on an open-graded aggregate—sand, gravel, crushed stones—base. The joints or openingsarefilled with a small open-graded aggregate. This small aggregate makes the system 100 percent permeable. The base of the system filters stormwater and reduces pollutants. This water can be collected and used for such things as watering the lawn. Otherwise, the open-graded base stores and infiltrates the stormwater back into the soil. Permeable interlocking con- crete pavements are an attractive way to green your home and the community. PICP can help during a drought or when storm sewers overflow from too muchrunoff. Homeowners and civic leaders particularly like the vast array of colors, shapes, sizes and textures in which these pavers are available. You can get rustic stonelike pavers or others that look like clay brick. They’re easy and inexpensive to maintain and to snowplow. In addition, because snow melts faster on PICP, it reduces ice hazards. Learn More You can learn more about PICP and find an experienced, professional installer by visiting the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute’s Web site at www.permeablepavement.org.
