Chicago To America: "We Have The Greenest Streets!"

1. Bike lanes adjacent to parking lane; 2. Bike rack; 3. Bioswale planter (removes silt and pollution from surface runoff; 4. Solar bus shelter; 5. White light lamp (40% more energy efficient); 6. 100% post-consumer recycled content used for sub-pavement levels; 7. Light-colored pavement (39% of hardscape is reflective pavement); 8. Reflective pavement to mitigate urban heat island effect; 9. Pervious parking and bike lanes with detention area made from recycled materials.

Chicago may be known as a gritty, rust belt city, but lately they are looking more and more like a city that is trying to innovate its way out of a downward spiral that unfortunately affects many of the aging cities in that region (see also Detroit, Cleveland, etc). Case in point: the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) late last year "unveiled the first phase of their “greenest street in America” project. Located on a 1.5-mile stretch of Cermak Road in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood, the street is made with air pollution-eating materials and features solar panels, native plants and stormwater-sucking pavement, among other impressive technology. The street’s success has since launched the city into the national limelight for innovative planning and design."1

Photo courtesy of inhabitat.com

This is an interesting claim, but lets unpack this claim a little and dive in to as many of the details as we can.

According to CDOT, this is the first commercial roadway application of photocatalytic concrete. We currently drafting a reasearch article on photocatalytic concrete but right now it looks like pretty amazing stuff. Imagine if you will, an abiotic material that not only cleans itself but also pulls carbon out of the air. The concrete’s "nanotechnology absorbs nitrogen oxide (i.e. car exhaust) from the air and cleans the road’s surface through a sunlight-powered reaction. The process uses titanium dioxide, so it’s not all roses — mining and chemical processing are needed to get titanium dioxide — but it’s a great application of the pigment. The sidewalk concrete uses more than 30 percent recycled content, and the cement’s reflectivity reduces the urban heat island effect."1 In this case it is worked into a road surface, but there are other possibilities, and something that looks to good to be true should be investigated further before we all start trumpeting it as the end-all be-all to global warming. Please stay tuned for our more extensive research!

On a more well known and tested note, they have incorporated stormwater capture where the "street diverts close to 80 percent of rainfall from the sewer system through permeable surfaces, rain gardens and street trees." The State of Illinois agreed to an Clean Water Act settlement consent decree with the EPA, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and with "the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (MWRD) to setlle a court case under the Clean water Act relating to Chicago's combined sewer system which during times of heavy rainfall results in combined sewer overflows (CSOs) into Lake Michigan and other water bodies. The settlement requires upgrading Chicago’s sewer infrastructure to reduce combined sewage overflows. The legally binding settlement mandates that MWRD make critical structural changes to improve the quality of Chicago’s waterways and includes green infrastructure projects to reduce runoff."2

The re-use of this runoff and plant selection in the CDOT solution eliminates the need for potable irrigation water. A wind and solar-powers the lighting system with LEDs. To complete their Green Infrastructure intervention, a half-mile of bike lanes. Sidewalks are made more walkable with a pedestrian refuge island — "which separates crossing pedestrians from motor vehicles — and curb-corner extensions that allocates more street space to pedestrians. CDOT also created educational signage and a walking tour brochure." 1

So the big question is, how much does this intervention cost? The near $14 million for the mile-and-a-half-project comes out to around $88 per square foot if you assume a 60' Right Of Way. "Funding came from Tax Increment Financing and assorted grants from the Federal Highway Administration, Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, and Midwest Generation. "1

Photo courtesy of inhabitat.com

WORKS CITED
1  www.gridphilly.com/grid-magazine/2013/3/11/steal-this-idea-chicago-street-cleans-the-air.html
2  geospatial.blogs.com/geospatial/2011/12/chicago-agrees-to-combined-sewer-overflows-consent-decree.html

Edinburgh Gardens Raingarden

Image courtesy of Landezine

In 2010 GHD Pty Ltd designed this recently constructed and elegant raingarden for Melbourne Water in collaboration with City of Yarra at the Edinburgh Gardens: St Georges Road- Fitzroy North in Melbourne, Australia.  It was constructed on on the site of the demolished Ladies Bowling Club within the southern section of the park and it is intended to improve the health of Merri Creek and the Yarra River by filtering pollutants from captured stormwater. 1

Some of the facts and figures brought to us by our friends at Landezine are below, but we were impressed on first glance by the overall composition and diagram. A thoughtful design apparently well executed. Although, we would probably have to contact the City of Yarra to find out how it is truly performing. In the meantime, enjoy the some of the initial info and the eye candy!

Nice Diagram! Image courtesy of Landezine

"The raingarden is to provide a sustainable source of treated stormwater for the parks mature trees and sporting fields in a way that added to the existing landscape character of the park and added interest for users. Melbourne has experienced drought conditions for a number of years now and this project was to replace the existing need for potable water being used to irrigate our parks and gardens.

This raingarden is designed to remove 16,000 kg of annual total suspended solids per year of operation. It will also remove a further 160 kg of nutrients, phosphorus and nitrogen, through vegetation growth. This litter and pollutants would otherwise end up in Melbourne’s waterways. Filtered water is then collected into a 200KL underground storage tank, and used to irrigate existing trees within the Edinburgh Gardens; providing around 60% of their irrigation needs in a normal year.

In a normal year, the raingarden is expected to reduce potable water use for irrigation by 4 ML per annum.
The project involved sourcing stormwater from the North Fitzroy Main Drain and diverting it to a newly designed terraced raingarden within the Edinburgh Gardens, with the treated water being harvested for storage and irrigation of the trees within the park and local precinct.

Image courtesy of Landezine

The main components of the project were:

• Diversion pipe from North Fitzroy Main Drain with gross pollutant trap
• Surcharge pit into 700 sq.m rain garden.
• Terraced raingarden with appropriate planting and filter media to treat stormwater.
• Overflow pit with underground pipe connected to 200 kilo-litre underground storage facility with pump to irrigation distribution.

As described above the majority of the works undertaken to achieve this were underground with the large raingarden providing the visual element. The main design features of the raingarden are:

• Native plant species planting
• Filter media and appropriate plants that help to treat the stormwater through uptake of excessive nutrients and filtering fine sediments.
• Four large terraces that respond to the sites natural grade, therefore minimising the requirement for taller retaining walls and balustrade, allowing informal public interaction,
• Terrace walls that extend out into the landscape to create lawn ‘room’ areas for passive recreation. These areas will create elevated views over the raingarden and provide different spatial experience in this area of the park which is currently characterised by large unbroken lawn areas.
• The strong lines of the extended terrace walls is repeated in the bands of planting in response to the recent history of the site as the location for the Inner Circle Railway Line.
• A ‘zig zagging’ feature steel low flow channel, connected to the surcharge pit, that delivers water to all four terraces in rain events.
• New tree planting to provide shade and enclosure for new small lawn areas
• Continuously curved edge to reinforce line of new shared path and existing avenue planting."2

 Image courtesy of Landezine

 Image courtesy of Landezine

 Image courtesy of Landezine

 Image courtesy of Landezine

 Image courtesy of Landezine

Works Cited:

1 http://www.yarracity.vic.gov.au/Environment/Parks-and-reserves/Edinburgh-Gardens/Proposed-Raingarden/
2  http://www.landezine.com/index.php/2012/10/edinburgh-gardens-raingarden-by-ghd-pty-ltd/

A Warehouse In Chicago Catches Fire In January

David Schalliol

The Chicago Tribune reports a A 5-11 alarm fire engulfed a warehouse building in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood late Tuesday night.  The result of the battle then waged with spraying water produced an amazing ice spectacle.  We do not in anyway want to in anyway minimize the potential loss the owner of the building may have suffered and most importantly, no one was injured in the blaze.  What we are left with from Photographers Robert R. Gigliotti, David Schalliol, and Darek Szupina are some stunning pictures of the aftermath to share.

David Schalliol

Robert R Gigliotti

Robert R Gigliotti

David Schalliol

David Schalliol

Darek Szupina

Special thanks, as usual, to http://www.thisiscolossal.com/

The Urban Hydrological Rationalization for Post Industrial Restoration

The traditional method of stream engineering in an urbanized area was to “remove large woody debris from the channel, straighten that channel, confine the stream in a new concrete channel, armor the banks with rip-rap, or enclose the stream in a pipe” (Brown, 2000). The aim was to move water as quickly and safely out of the immediate area to prevent “local urban flooding” (Brown, 2000). Due to this distorted form, urban streams ecologically malfunction and the wildlife that the stream and stream banks would normally support cannot survive (Brown, 2000). The physical effects of urbanization on natural water processes can be grouped into four categories: impervious surface cover (ISC), drainage density, temperature, and chemical and biological contamination (Paul, 2001).

“The most consistent and pervasive effect of urbanization is an increase in impervious surface cover within urban catchments, which alters the hydrology and geomorphology of streams” (Paul, 2001). When there is rainfall in areas with high ISC, water runs swiftly from roof tops and pavement with little to no absorption into the ground. This has two rather devastating effects both on the function of the stream and potentially to human settlement around those watercourses. Since the water runs more quickly, the time between the precipitation event to the “center of the runoff volume shortens within the urban catchments” (Paul, 2001). This results not only in more frequent flooding, but “floods that peak more rapidly” (Paul, 2001). In addition, since less water is absorbed into the ground, there is no water to provide baseflow discharge in the urban stream. The situation becomes one where there is little to no flow in what would normally have been an ephemeral stream followed by episodes of dangerously high flooding (Paul, 2001). Flooding in itself is as well a natural and much needed occurrence, however when the type and amplitude of flooding is not responsive to the climate, soil, and geology of the area, important amounts of land and vegetation can be lost from an area that normally would not have experienced those events.

It is important to address other water strategies in conjunction with stream restoration. There may be a question as to the detrimental impact of high density development or redevelopment of former industrial sites on the newly restored stream (Richards, 2000). If more ISC is introduced to an area using traditional grading and drainage plans there is no doubt that there will be a negative impact on the watershed (Richards, 2002). Lynn Richards, a policy analyst for the EPA sited two important studies conducted in 2000 that suggest that stormwater conservation redevelopment is more desirable condition compared with low density greenfield development or traditional redevelopment. The first is a study from Purdue University which “estimated that placing a hypothetical low-density development at the Chicago fringe area would produce 10 times more runoff than a mixed-uses development in the urban core” (Richards, 2000). The second, conducted at Jordan Cove, found that when “compared to conservation lot design, the large lot development produce 95% more runoff” (Richards, 2000). It only stands to reason that if there is a better and an often time cost effective (both in short and long term profit margins) means of constructing new, or retrofitting old neighborhoods it should be the preferable solution.

Brown, Kenneth. Urban Stream Restoration Practices: An Initial Assessment. Ellicott City, MD: US EPA, Office of Wetlands, Ocean, and Watersheds, 2000.

Paul, Michael J., and Judy L. Meyer. "Streams in Urban Landscape." Institute of Ecology, University of Georgia (2001): 333-356.

Richards, Lynn. Is Density Good for Water Quality? US EPA--OPEI APA Conference. 17 Apr. 2002. 19 Dec. 2005 <http://www.asu.edu/caed/ proceedings02/RICHARDS/richard1.htm>.