Porous Paving: Geo-Cells
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 07.26.06
More wonderful materials from Azure Magazine to deal with water run-off- Geo-cells. These are open-grid plastic systems that are filled with gravel or grassy turf. They support the weight of vehicles but let the water run through easily.
Grasspave from the appropriately names Invisible Structures, is a plastic mat that is rolled out onto a prepared bed, filled with appropriate landscaping, and you let it grow. Doesn't look like it, but it can hold up firetrucks. "Grasspave2 porous paving allows you to park, drive, walk, ride, or lounge on a beautiful grass surface. It performs the functions of asphalt or concrete pavement, but with the aesthetics of a lawn – all while enhancing the environment." They also make Gravelpave that can be used for commercial parking lots.
Gridtech makes Netlon Advanced Turf, which "consists of a specially prepared rootzone into which is blended thousands of small interlocking mesh elements. Washed turf or seed is used to establish grass cover. As the grass roots develop they penetrate through the mesh to form a deep anchored root system and a very stable rootzone. The result is a free draining natural grass surface with no visible structures but with high load bearing capabilities." They also make Netpave 50 which can be used as full time parking lots.
In most places, if ATV's were tearing up the landscape in a game refuge, they would be banned. However this is Alaska and you don't ban ATV's here, you build naturalized roads out of ::Geoblocks. "a series of interlocking, polyethylene paving units designed to provide superior load support and turf protection for emergency and utility access lanes, auxiliary parking, golf cart pathways, trails, and other high-use application areas. "
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I wonder what the rolling resistance is of these surfaces compared to pavement. I'm sure it's quite bikeable as ithe openings are leveled with gravel, but I suspect it offers a lot more drag than smooth pavement.
A pourous surface that offered comparable rolling resistance to pavement would be really nice for bike-specific infrastructure.
Looks cool. By the sounds of it and from viewing the videos of the invisiblestructires site, the rolling resistance would be the same as normal gravel and sod.
Now if they make some of the filler with recycled tires that would be even better.
I don't know about GrassPave, but the GravelPave feels similar to riding a bike at the beach. Definitely not great for peak performance, but it's awfully fun on a cruiser.
this is plastic, as in pvc, as in toxic, as in not treehugger, right?
Does this product stand up to giant snow plows... I'm thinking of canadian weather.
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editor note: Good question. Probably not with traditional plows - though I may be wrong on that - but I can imagine a modified plow that has small wheels on both sides to keep it up a few centimeters off the ground and avoid hitting the bumps.
Why is recycled plastic not treehugger?
I think recycled plastic is treehugger, but I agree that PVC is an important issue. Will the bad chemicals in PVC be swept into the water table during a substantial rainfall? Under what conditions is it dangerous? Will the grass help to purify/counteract this phenemenon?
It may not stand up to the huge snow plows, but it stands up to a typical pick-up snow plow as long as the ground is frozen.
From the Invisible Structures website, the material is "Resin - 100% recycled HDPE (standard)". Once we get some quality monitoring equipment installed at ours, I'll let you all know what the results are of any leaching.
Recycled plastic is treehugger, no doubt. Even better, it's polyethylene, which, while not part of this nutritious breakfast, is less "bad" than polyvinyl-chloride (PVC).
Even if it was unrecycled PVC, I'm *guessing* that it would still be a good alternative to paving an area with concrete or asphalt - which is exactly what this product seems designed to replace (when possible).
This looks like a good idea, and I'll be suggesting it to some neighbors who seem to be planning on paving part of their side-yard to better accommodate trailer mounted equipment (he's a contractor).
So, call my silly on this one. But if you make a parking lot out of grass how does grass grow? The grass will be under a car (in the shade) and covered in various leakage.
A good amount of space in most parking lots is never used (think malls, which have huge amounts of parking that only get used around the holidays.) A lot of other parking lots see transient flow throughout the day.
Some of the runoff/leakage from cars actually contains a high amount of nutrients that help the grass grow; oil leaks and other nasties are still a problem, but at least that stuff doesn't run straight to the streams like it would with asphalt.
That said, I agree with your point. There are some of these installed that look pretty bad because they're not living, either from poor installation or other factors. If you install and maintain it well, though, it can be a great alternative.
Hi,
I am a landscape architect and have spec'd this a few times, though not as many as i would like. What is cool about it is that it prevents compaction of soil (if you are using grass as the surface) as well as gravel. This allows it to remain permiable and have the grass survive.
This doesn't appear to be more difficult to plow if installed correctly, and looks much better.
I am getting my MLA degree and want to work in sustainable design. Do you have monitoring info now? I am putting together a number of presentations on stormwater and green solutions and I need good stats to back up my contentions/beliefs/strategies.
A mall near us installed Grasspave in their employee/ overflow parking area several years ago and it's been a hit from all we've read. After hearing about it, my fiance and I decided to replace a big swath of asphalt which was taken out of our driveway during some construction with grass. The driveway used to run right across the middle of our back yard (ug-LY!). We're considering Grasspave: 100% recycled, comes in easy to install flexible rolls vs. hard square grids, more eco-friendly, and we won't have a blacktop yard! What better place to park my hybrid.
If I am going to use grasspave as a major material in parking lot and I want it all green instead of using gravel as a filler, what's the best grass material (scientific name) should I use to sustain the long hours of vehicles parking in the area?