The Quality of Infiltrated Water Through Porous and Conventional Asphalt Pavements

ABSTRACT Three case studies are presented herein. The first study was conducted to compare pollutant loadings of runoff waters either collected at the outlet of a porous pavement with reservoir structure or coming from a catchment drained by a conventional pavement drainage system. Pollutant loads measured at the reservoir structure appeared notably lower than those measured at the reference catchment. Secondly, data on runoff water quality obtained from a French highway, both before and after the replacement of a conventional asphalt by a porous asphalt, were compared. The retention of particulate pollution by the porous pavement, which acts as a filter, was clearly demonstrated. The last study was related to an experimental programme carried out to evaluate the potential of asphalt pavement containing different rates of reclaimed asphalt pavement to leach pollutants. The concentrations of heavy metals and PAHs in percolating waters were generally low.