Porous pavement is another structural approach to stormwater management that has been employed extensively at Carolina.
Gravel beds under the porous surface store rainwater until it slowly infiltrates into our clay soils. The soil then filters out pollutants conveyed from the parking lot.
Completed in 2002, porous pavement was installed at both the 800-space Friday Center park-and-ride lot and a remote parking lot for students with 465 spaces. The University saved approximately $500 per parking space in these lots by selecting a permeable pavement system instead of building an additional detention basin or drainage system.
Additional porous asphalt lots have been installed at the Facilities Complex, on Cameron Avenue across from the cogeneration plant, in front of the EPA building on campus, and at the Hedrick lot. The park and ride lot in Chatham County is a porous lot designed to infiltrate into a sandy soil layer. Porous lots with detention beds are also planned behind the Steele and Caldwell buildings on Cameron Avenue as part of a pipe replacement project.