Can porous pavers cope with traffic? 

Porous paving is a fantastic choice when it comes to managing water in the environment and directing it back to where it needs to go. But it doesn’t sound exactly – well – strong. Obviously, to allow water to infiltrate through the pavement, it can’t be a hard, solid surface, so you’d be forgiven for wondering if this fantastic type of environmentally friendly pavement can actually withstand traffic – or is it best relegated to backyard and garden use? 

While porous pavers come with many benefits, it’s a question that many people ask – can porous pavers cope with traffic loads without compromising the structure and effectiveness of the pavement?

The answer – yes and no. It depends on the type of traffic. Let’s dive in and discover exactly what type of traffic porous pavers can cope with.

Types of traffic porous pavers are designed to withstand

Porous paving is incredibly versatile, and can be used in a whole host of different situations very effectively. However, in all of these situations, a porous pavement can generally only support light to medium vehicle and pedestrian traffic loads.

Porous pavements will cope very well with:

• Domestic driveways
• Patios and courtyards
• Walkways and paths
• Pedestrian pavements
• Residential roads
• Parking lots and parking spaces
• Streetscapes
• Swimming pool surrounds
• Water harvesting applications
• Tree surrounds
• Low volume vehicle traffic
• Emergency vehicle access areas
• Occasional heavy vehicle traffic (such as delivery trucks)
• City centres
• Schools
• Wheelchairs and scooters

Types of traffic porous pavers won’t cope with

Porous pavements are composed of aggregates (small, individually separate elements) rather than solid types of material such as concrete or stone. This facilitates the porous nature of the pavement system, as water can be absorbed between the aggregates and then be filtered through into the ground. However, this means that a porous pavement is not as strong or as capable of withstanding traffic as a traditional pavement type.

Porous pavements won’t cope well with heavy traffic such as:

• Heavy vehicle driveways
• Airports
• High-traffic roads
• Highways 
• Commercial parking lots
• Pavements that are subject to frequent heavy vehicle loading and turning

Porous pavers are not likely to be suitable for any area that receives very high vehicular traffic loads – although they CAN cope with heavy vehicles in limited numbers. The continual abrasion from braking, accelerating, and turning will damage the porous surface. As an aside, porous pavements are also not suitable in steeply sloping areas or steep gradients, as the system is not able to absorb water as well during heavy rain events.

If your pavement is exposed to these types of heavy traffic, you can expect it to wear, degrade and clog very quickly. And once a pavement is damaged and contaminated, it becomes structurally unsound and ceases to be effective. There are better surfacing options for heavy traffic areas such as these, that are designed to cope with very high loading in ways that porous pavement just isn’t. 

So, while you can’t use a porous pavement in a high and heavy traffic area, there ARE plenty of situations where a porous pavement is extremely useful, and does an amazing job of catching water run-off and discharging it into the environment in a controlled way. Click here to discover everything you need to know about water management and porous paving.

If you’re considering installing a porous pavement and are unsure where to start, get in touch with us today – we’re only too happy to guide you.