From the Citizen News:
The new plans for the Sherman Library were presented at length at both the Inland Wetlands Commission and the Planning and Zoning Commission recent regular meetings by the engineer for the project, Paul Szymanski. Because of the difficulty of the site and the small amount of space to work with, there was a need to employ special engineering to deal with storm water run off.
Mr Szymanski, Enforcement Officer Ron Cooper and Town engineer Joe Zarecki plan to use a technology called porous or pervious asphalt on the new and enlarged parking areas for the library. The fine sand is taken out of the asphalt mix which results in holes that absorb the water. There is a thirty to forty inch base consisting of various layers of gravel and pea stone. There is no winter heave of porous asphalt as the water is absorbed.
The three men are planning to visit the University of New Hampshire this week where there is a project that has been going on for seven years. Two parking lots were paved with the asphalt and one was never maintained properly and the other was vacuumed four times a year to remove sand as is suggested. (See related article) Both are doing well. Mr Zarecki-is not going to charge for his time and expertise in relation to the trip and follow up report.
While the installation of porous asphalt costs about 10% more than regular asphalt – it lasts about 10 years longer.
It looks as if this- plan will be going forward and everyone is excited about it.
The only installation of porous asphalt in Connecticut is a parking lot at the University of Connecticut that was done last year, Mr Szymanski is sure that commission people from the whole area will be coming to Sherman to see what we did and how it is working.
Mr Szymanski also talked about the large rain garden that will be dealing with the roof runoff. This consists of 30 inches of various special soils with plantings and no overflow is expected except possibly in a 100 year storm.
At the P&Z meeting Sherman Library Board President Sharon Danosky thanked the Commission members for all their hard work and the enormous amount of time that has been spent on the project. However everyone on the Board thinks that they have gotten it right and Sherman will have a beautiful space for growing numbers of users.
Learn all about porous asphalt by clicking here!
Our firm performed the following services for this project: Property Survey, Topographic Survey, Zoning Location Survey, Hydrology & Stormwater Management, Stormwater System Design, Sedimentation & Erosion Control Plans, Septic System Design, Utility Layout, Roadway Design, Driveway Design, Sight Distance Analysis, Parking Lot Layout & Design, Traffic Circulation & Studies, Cuts & Fills Analysis, Low Impact Development, Wetland Soil & Watercourse Delineation, Soil Investigation & Testing, Local, State, & Federal Land Use Permitting. Contact us today at (860) 354-9346 to have us assist you with your next project.
Click Here to learn more about the services we offer. Arthur H. Howland & Associates, P.C. is a full service civil engineering, land surveying, land use planning and environmental services firm. Contact us today at (860) 354-9346 to find out how we can assist you with your next project.