A Minnesota Suburb's Permeable Pavement Leadership

Shoreview, Minnesota has one of the most extensive permeable pavement systems in the United States. This technology has reduced the need for expensive grey infrastructure like stormwater sewer systems.

1 minute read

February 7, 2020, 7:00 AM PST

By urbanguy


Permeable Pavement

Mike Boucher / Flickr

Freelance journalist Cinnamon Janzer writes in Next City's online web page: "After Shoreview’s first permeable pavement project in 2009, the city sent out mailers to tell neighbors about their permeable streets and what they can do to help it function sustainably, like not blowing dirt into the street. Since then, the city has added five more stretches of permeable pavement as part of larger road reconstruction projects and demand is growing."

As a winter city, Shoreview has been pleased with how its permeable pavement is holding up in winter conditions. "After four Minnesota winters of dramatically differing duration, precipitation, freeze-thaw cycles, soil moisture levels, and snowplow events, we are quite pleased with the performance of this pervious concrete roadway/drainage system. It is being used as intended with no unusual operational issues to date,” Shoreview's Public Works director Mark Maloney wrote in 2013. "The pervious concrete pavement in the Woodbridge Neighborhood is functioning as intended and still stands as the most successful example of the use of pervious concrete for public roadway infrastructure."

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