Long term drainage performance of pervious concrete pavements in Canada

Pervious concrete pavement is an eco-friendly pavement system which can offer various and sustainable benefits for stormwater management. It can be considered as an alternative to impervious pavement system as the open void structure of pervious concrete pavement allows water to infiltrate very quickly through it and join the natural ground water. Though pervious concrete pavement has been used in parts of Europe and the southern United States for many years, the practice of using it in northern cold climates such as Canada is more recent. Several pervious concrete pavement field sites were constructed by the Centre for Pavement and Transportation Technology (CPATT) at the University of Waterloo, the Cement Association of Canada, and several other industry members. Initial results from this work have been published previously, and include the performance analysis, permeability evaluation, and strength assessment. However, collecting drainage characteristic data from instruments such as the moisture gauge measurements, strain gauge at three sites have continued to be monitored. This field/laboratory study is providing insight into the short and medium term drainage performance of pervious concrete pavement. As a continuation of previous work, this paper discusses the effect of mix design in the performance of pervious concrete, the long term drainage instrumentation performance that have been obtained from instrumentation at sites in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. An analysis framework is also presented in this paper. The findings from this paper will provide useful information for designers and practitioners on the long term drainage performance of pervious concrete pavement.