Permeable concrete in Northern Territory

Wet season volume, dry season dust

The Top End gets most of its rain in a handful of months, and it comes down hard. Darwin, Palmerston and Katherine all deal with the same thing: a drainage network sized for a monsoon peak, and more roof and hard paving added to catchments every year. Permeable concrete takes a driveway or car park out of that runoff equation. Water passes through the slab into an open-graded base, and the base stores it and releases it slowly instead of throwing it at the kerb all at once.

Soils across the Territory vary from lateritic gravels to tight clays, and wet season watertables rise fast. Both facts change the design. Where the ground takes water, we let it infiltrate. Where it doesn't, or where groundwater sits high, the same pavement is built as a detained system with a controlled outlet. That decision belongs to the site's own testing, not to a rule of thumb.

Heat, dust and keeping it working

An open-textured surface holds moisture and reads cooler underfoot than dense dark paving, which counts for something on a car park in October. The honest trade-off is maintenance. Dry season dust, grass seed and construction sediment are what clog these pavements, so a vacuum sweep before the wet is the single most useful thing an owner can do. If capacity has dropped, a pressure wash followed by vacuuming brings most of it back. Rotary brooms are the one thing to avoid, since they push debris into the voids.

Territory projects are planned work for us, not something we squeeze in. Our national team schedules crews and materials around the wet season and batches nearby jobs where it makes sense. We'll tell you honestly what that means for your timing before you commit to anything.

• Car parks for commercial, community and remote facilities.
• Driveways where wet season runoff is scouring or flooding.

Send us the location, the area and what the site does in a downpour. Get in touch and we'll work through it.