| Greenbuilding Archive for October 2002 |
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| 401 messages, last added Tue Nov 26 17:27:25 2002 |
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Anybody have any input on the concrete referred to in the article below? What brand, cost, etc...
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-me-park25oct25,0,5248559.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dscience
Los Angeles Times:
October 25, 2002
LOS ANGELES
Park Pavement Breaks New Ground
By Wendy Thermos, Times Staff Writer
A group of people will gather in a park today to chip away at the notion
that concrete is the bane of nature.
The occasion could mark a watershed event -- literally -- in environmental
thinking.
Regional and state officials will break ground for a state-of-the-art
gateway to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the
nation's largest urban park.
The big draw will be a poured sample of "environmentally friendly"
concrete that will be used to pave parking and walkway areas of the
parkland on Mulholland Drive, just off of Topanga Canyon Boulevard.
It will be the first large-scale use of the material by a state agency in
California, officials say.
"This is unbelievable stuff," said Stephanie Landregan, chief landscape
architect for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, which owns the new
park. "It's just the coolest thing to watch water go right through it."
Environmentally friendly concrete may sound like an oxymoron, but
environmentalists are going gaga over it, Landregan said.
It consists of dun-colored porous pavement that looks like a combination
of soil and gravel. The difference is that it stays put--it doesn't "give"
like dirt or crunch like gravel. And it looks natural, Landregan said. "If
you didn't look too hard, you wouldn't realize that it's artificial."
Traditional concrete sheds water that in turn digs gullies or collects in
puddles. Porous concrete allows water to percolate into the ground. It
recharges ground water, prevents erosion, filters out harmful substances
and, if it is used in urban settings, decreases the amount of water that
flows uselessly to the ocean in storm sewers, Landregan said.
"This represents the merger of green infrastructure with traditional
construction," she said.
The new 61-acre portal to the vast national recreation area straddling the
Santa Monica Mountains has been chosen as a showcase for the new material.
"This is the first state-sponsored project in California to do this,"
Landregan said. Porous concrete will be used to pave the mile-long entry
road, a 70-car parking lot and walkways.
The new parkland is also important, officials said, because it will
provide San Fernando Valley residents with easier access to the recreation
area, which is a patchwork of parks stretching from Point Mugu in Ventura
County to Griffith Park in Los Angeles.
Visitors from north of Mulholland currently have to make a long drive
through winding Topanga Canyon to get to the most popular parts of the
recreation area.
By next summer, the added parkland will allow nature lovers to zip south
from the Ventura Freeway on a short stretch of Topanga Canyon Boulevard
and be in the wilderness in record time.
"If you're not a big hiker or mountain biker, you might not want to go the
long route," conservancy spokeswoman Dash Stolarz said. "This is a very
easy-to-get-to place." The newly acquired land is surrounded on all sides
by trails leading to the heart of the recreation area.
When visitors arrive at Mulholland Gateway Park, they'll be greeted by
state-of-the-art facilities, including solar-powered lighting,
self-composting restrooms and a half-mile interpretive nature trail
accessible by wheelchair.
The land was purchased with $6 million in state funds from a
voter-approved bond measure after years of efforts by activists to prevent
residential development, Stolarz said.
Among the dignitaries expected to attend today's ceremony are state
Resources Secretary Mary Nichols, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks),
Assemblywoman Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) and Los Angeles City
Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski.
* * *
Copyright 2002 Los Angeles Times
*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed, without profit, for research and educational purposes
only. ***
Brian Turner
Grinnell College Environmental Coordinator
Grinnell, IA
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