PICP Delivers a Gold Medal Performance

Vancouver, BC- Visitors to the 2010 Winter Olympics must look up at Whistler and Cypress Mountains to see gold medal performances, but at the Athlete’s Village in Vancouver, the athletes can look down and see another gold medal performance. It is the pollution preventing pavement the village was paved in. Permeable interlocking concrete pavement (PICP) was used in the street construction for the athlete’s village at the Winter Olympics. PICP was selected because it not only provides an attractive, durable road surface, it reduces the volume of stormwater runoff and the pollutants washed off of the streets. The village is adjacent to the False Creek environmentally sensitive area.

PICP looks like popular concrete paving stones but have a small space between them. This space is filled with small stones that allow runoff to filter down and into the soil, reducing stormwater runoff and pollution. In snowy weather, they can reduce icy buildup. The melting snow just drains into the spaces between the pavers so it doesn’t have a chance to refreeze into ice. PICP can be used for walks, patios and driveways, as well as for parking lots and residential streets. They are available in a vast array of colors, shapes, sizes and textures. When the snow finally disappears the PICP will be reducing runoff from common rainstorms by as much as 100 percent eliminating surface puddles and flooding.

villageLong after the athletes have returned home, the PICP streets in the Olympic village will be delivering gold medal performances. You can learn more about PICP and find an experienced, professional installer by visiting the Interlocking Concrete Pavement Institute’s website at www.icpi.org.