Eric Spear was tired
of his garage flooding when it rained. That, he says, was the impetus for
repaving his driveway. This rather mundane home improvement project is
in the news for two reasons: one, he had drive repaved with porous asphalt. Two,
he’s a city councilor in Portsmouth, NH, and as such he’s now promoting porous
pavement as an environmentally—and economically—sound choice for the city.
The price of the paving
itself was comparable to the cost of traditional asphalt. He incurred additional
cost for the 8 inches of gravel underneath the driveway, but because he didn’t
have to install a drain pipe, he figures it’s a wash.
Spear is now looking for
opportunities for the city to use similar porous materials. He’s interested in
long-term monitoring of his own driveway and similar installations to see how
they perform over time and how much maintenance they need.
His story
was reported locally and picked up by national news distributors. So, two
questions: First, how large a role do you think local projects—a
politician’s driveway, a municipal alley, a strip-mall parking lot—have in
bringing such things as porous pavement to the public’s attention? Will a photo
of a city councilor pouring a bucket of water on his new driveway actually
inspire other homeowners to install, or at least to investigate, similar
options?
Second, how important do you
think the widespread adoption of such lot-level LID measures really is? If
enough people opt for similar driveways (and rain gardens in their yards, and
rain barrels) will it make a difference to the city’s stormwater system? And how
long will that take?