Evolution of Sustainable and Resilient Pervious Concrete Pavement Technologies in India

Pervious concrete pavement (PCP) systems are engineered roadway technologies that are known to mitigate stormwater runoff attributed to their high porosity. Though significant advancements have been made at the global level, research, and innovation pertinent to PCPs is still emerging in India. Therefore, the objective of this research was to present the evolution of PCP technology in the Indian context. The details pertinent to mix design and characterization, field construction and monitoring, and development of innovative PCP products were presented. Test results indicated that PCPs are suitable for applications in walkways, parking lots, and low-volume roads. It was further observed that the quality control with traditional construction practices was poor resulting in inconsistent mix properties. Though paver blocks offer superior quality products than conventional PCP, they suffer from low strength and maintenance issues. Therefore, recent research focused on designing Pervious All-road class All-weather Multilayered paver (PARAMpave) blocks, whose flexural strength and infiltration rates were higher than 4.8 MPa and 0.77 cm/s, respectively making them suitable for application in all-road-all-weather conditions. Further, PARAMpave consumes lower energy and generates fewer emissions during production. However, additional research must focus on construction of test sections by utilizing pervious concrete paver blocks and PARAMpave products to identify their performance during the design life.