Sources: Percoa USA LLC, Minneapolis; CP staff
Armed with a recently issued patent, Percoa USA is eyeing a range of commercial and residential market applications for its precast pervious concrete system and stormwater filtration methods. “We have demonstrated the durability of [the product] as well as its effectiveness in capturing and filtering runoff,” and “are moving to license technology to companies ready to manufacture pervious slabs and pavers,” affirms President Brett Pomerleau.
Since October 2011, the Minnesota Department of Transportation has monitored Percoa slabs at MnROAD, one of the most sophisticated, independently operated pavement test facilities in the world. Placed with a wide variety of other specimens at an elongated loop paralleling Interstate 94, just north of the Twin Cities, the pervious test slabs have withstood three winters of freeze-thaw exposure and an estimated 720 tests with a fully loaded 18-wheel, five-axle tractor-trailer, exhibiting very little settlement or cracking.
Percoa offers what developers contend are a superior alternative to cast-in-place pervious concrete and more effective drainage than permeable concrete pavers. The product can be cast in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors, they add, offering greater flexibility for civil engineers, landscape architects and contractors to design and install parking lots, driveways, sidewalks and walkways, plazas and patios. “Percoa has the potential to revitalize and expand the use of pervious concrete. You know what you are getting, and how it will perform, because of its controlled production process,” notes Mary Vancura, Ph.D. of Mendota Heights, Minn.-based Beton Consulting Engineers, LLC. — www.percoausa.com