Permeable concrete in Queensland

Rain and approvals: what changes in Queensland

Permeable concrete in Queensland gets judged on the rain and on the approval, and both work differently here. Summer rain comes hard, all at once. So you design for the peak, because the yearly total tells you very little about a Brisbane car park on a February afternoon when the gutters are already running over. Permcon passes water through the slab at 8,000 to 10,000 mm/hr, a long way ahead of anything a storm can drop on it. Underneath, the base holds the surge instead of sending it straight to the kerb.

Then the paperwork. Many Queensland councils want a MUSIC model with the stormwater plan, and Permcon is MUSIC certified. Ask us for the node parameters and your consultant can put the pavement straight into the model.

Water quality is the other half of that model. New development in South East Queensland is measured against a total suspended solids objective, and Permcon removes 80 per cent of total suspended solids, which lines up with it. On a car park it also catches up to 70 per cent of the heavy metals, hydrocarbons and detritus.

When the ground won't take it

Where the ground is compacted clay, the base does the storing, and an under-drain releases what the clay can't take at a controlled rate. If the design calls for more infiltration, it can include vertical infiltration cores through the clay, as it did on the Gold Coast path below.

Thickness decides whether a slab carries a ute or a bin truck, and your council decides what counts toward its targets, so we design to both and write down why. Profiles, storage per square metre and estimated loading by thickness are on our technical page.

The Queensland path we'd show you first

A waterfront park path on the Gold Coast. It takes runoff from a 5,156 m² catchment, and the ground under it is compacted clay that takes water slowly. The path was rebuilt as permeable concrete with vertical infiltration cores through the clay. Now it drains where it stands. Water gets down into ground that would otherwise shed it, and the public keeps a path that stays walkable in a downpour.

What that means for a council asset is set out on our permeable footpaths page.

What the Queensland team pours

Permcon on 10 mm aggregate at the standard 125 mm slab, thicker where the trucks ask for it. That's car parks, driveways, council paths and sports courts.

For developers working under a stormwater quality condition, the programme matters as much as the pavement. Crews place 500 m² and more in a day, so a car park doesn't hold up the rest of the build. There's more on the commercial side of permeable paving.

What happens when you call

Send us the address, the area, the stormwater plan and the council's conditions, whichever you have. An estimator from the Queensland team calls you back and comes out to look. On site we check the fall and the access, what the ground will take, and what the model needs the pavement to do. You then get a real figure for that site, with the slab thickness, base depth and any under-drain or cores written down, plus the MUSIC parameters if your consultant wants them.

After the pour, upkeep is a look each month for leaves and sediment and a sweep once a year. The other job is keeping garden beds from washing soil onto the slab. It carries a 10-year structural warranty. If you're planning a driveway on the Gold Coast or a car park in Brisbane, tell us about the site and the Queensland team will call you back.