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Percoa can be molded in a variety of sizes, shapes and colors. It offers civil engineers, landscape architects and contractors flexibility in designing and placing pervious parking lots, driveways, sidewalks and walkways, plazas and patios. |
On the heels of patenting a precast pervious concrete system and related stormwater filtration methods, Minneapolis-based Percoa USA, LLC sees a range of commercial and residential market applications. “We have demonstrated the durability of [the product] as well as its effectiveness in capturing and filtering runoff,” affirms President Brett Pomerleau, and “are moving to license [the] technology to companies ready to manufacture pervious slabs and pavers.”
Percoa is a superior alternative to cast-in-place pervious concrete, he contends, citing more consistent structural characteristics, greater uniformity, predictable performance, plus strength and durability characteristics. The product bests permeable pavers which, Pomerleau notes, are themselves impervious and enable water infiltration only in the spaces between each unit.
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Traffic-grade Percoa slabs weather the Minnesota seasons at the Plymouth City Hall |
Since October 2011, the Minnesota Department of Transportation has monitored Percoa slabs at MnROAD, one of the world’s most advanced, independently operated concrete and asphalt pavement test facilities. Placed with a wide variety of other specimens at a site paralleling Interstate 94, just north of the Twin Cities, precast pervious specimen slabs have withstood three winters of freeze-thaw cycles and an estimated 720 tests with the weight of a fully loaded 18-wheel, 5-axle tractor trailer—exhibiting very little settlement or cracking.
“Percoa has the potential to revitalize and expand the use of pervious concrete,” observes Mary Vancura, Ph.D. of Mendota Heights, Minn.-based Beton Consulting Engineers, LLC. “With Percoa, you know what you are getting and how it will perform because of its controlled production.”