Ever walk along Beach Road at the south end of the Lake after a rain storm? Yikes, if a car is coming your way you better run for it or you’ll get soaked. If you’re in the car, you’ll be bounced around by the pot holes. Now this well traveled route in Lake George is is about to become FAMOUS… famous perhaps across the entire nation! And famous for the right reasons — because it will be VERY lake-friendly. Imagine that!
This spring, one of the MOST IMPORTANT Lake Saving Projects ever in Lake George will begin.
Beach Road is about to become the first heavily traveled roadway in all of New York State (and one of the only roads in all of the Northeast) to be paved with porous asphalt. This exciting technology allows stormwater and melting snow to drain right through it and be filtered naturally by the earth below. The silt, salt and pollutants the stormwater carries will be filtered out naturally and will not go into the Lake. The Beach Road project will provide a true demonstration for permeable pavement, and many people around the state and nation will be watching it to see how it works.
The $6 million-plus reconstruction project is scheduled to begin in mid-April, and will be completed in about 18 months. The pavement will be installed between Canada Street and Fort George Road.
Research studies and previous projects have shown that porous pavement is highly effective in draining stormwater, and as a result, it increases traction, reduces the build up of ice, and requires much less de-icing material in the winter. (See the Albany parking lot at right — with porous asphalt in the foreground and traditional asphalt in the background.) This is all very good news for the Lake, as the amount of salt detected in the south end of the lake has doubled in just over 20 years. Check out the University of New Hampshire Stormwater Center website — they’ve conducted numerous studies showing how effective and beneficial this new technology can be — it’s pretty cool stuff in a lot of ways.
In 2010, Warren County was planning to use traditional asphalt on Beach Road. After attending the North County Stormwater Conference & Trade Show, and seeing several presentations on porous asphalt applications, Randy Rath, project manager at the
LGA, and Dave Wick, director of Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District, encouraged the county to consider porous asphalt as an alternative to traditional asphalt.
Together, Randy and Dave quickly conducted research on the possibilities and made a presentation. (You can view it from the LGA website.) They knew there had been many significant improvements in the strength, durability, and production cost of porous asphalt, and thought Beach Road was a perfect fit for the new technology.
In 2011, the LGA provided just over $8,000 in funding for a feasibility study with project engineer Tom Baird (Barton & Loguidice), to provide the information the county and state needed to move forward. At the same time, Dave Wick helped draft an application for additional monies to offset any higher cost from using porous asphalt. The pieces of the puzzle came together at the right time.
The LGA congratulates Warren County Director of Public Works, Jeff Tennyson, and the state Department of Transportation, for moving forward on this revolutionary project, one we believe will get national recognition, and will set a precedent for many like it to follow in other lakeside communities.
The LGA also thanks project engineer Tom Baird for his passion and expertise, and for the many hours he gave to the project.
Many people still don’t realize that when it comes to harming Lake George, stormwater runoff, the very stuff that flows off Beach Road, is the number one source of pollutants entering the Lake. The dense development at the south end of the Lake, and the many impervious surfaces created by it, increases the volume and rate of flow of stormwater. Along with the stormwater, many contaminants, such as silt, salt and harmful nutrients, are carried directly into the Lake.
The Beach Road project will be a great complement to the West Brook Conservation Initiative. We can’t wait to show both projects off in our own backyard!
In the meantime, if you’re eager to see what porous asphalt is like, come on up to our office. Here’s a picture I took yesterday of a demonstration patch we have right in front of our door. You can see a big difference between the gravel parking lot in the foreground — which is currently covered with ice — and the permeable pavement — which offers a nice safe surface for walking.