Wenk Tests Pavement Technology at New Offices
Firm installs first 'permeable pavement' parking lot in downtown Denver

Photos courtesy of Wenk Associates

Wenk Associates Inc. has turned its location into a testing ground for a pavement technology that has been used for years throughout Europe, but mostly overlooked in the United States.

When the firm relocated to its new office in the Golden Triangle neighborhood, it teamed with the Urban Drainage and Flood Control District and concrete paver manufacturer Pavestone Co. to install the first permeable pavement parking lot in downtown Denver.

Permeable pavement is a system of interlocking concrete pavers installed on a bed of aggregate. Spaces between and below the pavers provide a place for stormwater to drain and soak into the ground, minimizing the amount of polluted runoff that enters the city's drainageways.

Permeable pavement is best installed in low traffic areas, making it ideal for the parking lot of an office building or a lightly traveled street. With traditional pavement, rain flows across the surface, picking up pollutants until it reaches an area where it can soak into the ground or collect in a drainageway or storm sewer. In larger storms, these pollutants tend to become diluted.

But in the smaller storms more common in Colorado, a significant portion of the runoff consists of these contaminants. Landscapes that direct water to soak into the ground reduce both the amount of runoff that must be carried by drainageways and storm sewers, and the amount of pollutants the water holds. Removing these pollutants is the single most important step towards improving natural streams and rivers.
Wenk Associates Inc. is known regionally and nationally for its work in integrating natural systems and processes into urban settings - particularly in the areas of stormwater management and water quality.

Since its founding in 1982, the firm has been developing alternatives to stormwater management from the stormwater gardens at its former offices - where rainwater was strategically channeled from the roof into a series of non-irrigated gardens - to the stormwater guidelines for the redevelopment of Stapleton International Airport.

The company was also instrumental in the redevelopment of the Menomonee River Valley in Milwaukee, a site that accommodates and treats the 100-year storm event.
UDFCD, the organization responsible for assisting Denver metro area governments with multi-jurisdictional drainage and flood control problems, will monitor the permeable pavement at the firm's new location. In particular, the group will be study how the pavement deals with stormwater runoff, as well as the overall performance, compared to more traditional pavement types.

Pavestone Co. has manufactured segmental concrete products since 1980. It specializes in concrete pavers and retaining wall units, products that allow pavement infiltration on different traffic levels.

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