LIBRARY RESEARCH

January 2021

STUDY ON PERVIOUS CONCRETE AS AN ALTERNATIVE ROADWAY DRAINAGE

SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES
Odyson D. Santos
Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering, Isabela State University, Echague, Isabela, Philippines
College of Engineering

Abstract
The management of environmental sustainability is an increasing importance to the construction industry
and its management. One of the issues with respect to sustainability is the impact of urbanization, which
results in the conversion of impervious (paved) surfaces, leading to a range of related problems. Also, in
the Philippines, most of the drainage system is composed of metal rods, concrete slabs separated to each
other and composite manholes. Yet these cause certain problems when garbage blocks the water way or
worse, flows inside the canal system. A solution is to use permeable concrete pavements, which can be
an effective means of addressing these issues. Permeable concrete with fine aggregates removed and have
20% to 35% concrete composition tend to have higher compressive and flexural strength. The downside
is that the permeability rate is lessened due to the presence of high amount of binders (cement) which fill
the gaps of the concrete. Permeable pavements can filter out water from floods filled with garbage,
leading to a clearer drainage system, and reduce the possibility of flash flooding. However, in the
Philippines the use of permeable pavement is mostly unheard of. The Research shows that the strength of
the Pervious concrete passed the standard set by the Department of Public Works and Highways. This
paper demonstrates that pervious concrete can be an important contributor to sustainable practice and can
be applied in practical use in the roadways here in the Philippines .
Keywords: Pervious concrete, Sustainability, Roadways, Drainage system

INTRODUCTION
The Philippines experiences almost 20 typhoons sometimes these manholes are left opened
a year. Poor drainage system and flood controls making it a serious risk to the pedestrians.
failed to overcome large amount of rainfall Another drainage system used are the steel
causing flash floods which results to destruction gratings. In this system they use a metal screens
of property, diseases and even death (UNDRR, with open holes as an opening for the water to
2019). Back on September 2009 when Typhoon flow, but often blocked by residues such as
Ketsana also known as Tropical Storm Ondoy plastic and other garbage due to its small surface
hit Manila, flood water level reached a record of area (Zibo Best Energy-Saving materials co.,
20 feet (6.1m) in urban areas due to poor flood 2020).
control system it resulted to 956 deaths and
more than 700 injuries (GFDRR, 2010). One promising way is the use of porous or
permeable concrete designs to overcome these
In many places the drainage systems are under challenges. Porous concrete is a concrete with
sidewalks, these sidewalks consist of concrete continuous voids which are intentionally
slabs that is sometimes broken and separated incorporated into the concrete. It belongs to a
from each other leading to risk concerns for the completely different category from conventional
pedestrian and even vehicles. Other areas use concrete and hence its physical characteristics
composite manholes as flood controls but differ greatly from those of normal concrete.
This porous concrete mixture has little to no
 STUDY ON PERVIOUS CONCRETE AS AN ALTERNATIVE ROADWAY DRAINAGE
SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

sand which creates an open-cell structure that management practices (Abdel-Aziz, 2015).
allows rain water to filter right through to the Projects have been carried out by many groups
underlying soil or canal and leave large to evaluate the ability of pervious concrete
substrates such as dried leaves and plastics pavement to remove particulate from water that
behind (ACI, 2010). Compared to impervious moves through the pavement structure.
nature of concrete used for the construction of Pollutants that would otherwise remain in runoff
pavements, walkways, open car parks, it and contaminate runoff have been shown to be
contributes to the increased water runoff to the removed during filtering through the voids in a
drainage system, over-burdening the porous concrete pavement but these projects
infrastructure and causing excessive flooding in were limited to parking spots, pedestrian
built-up areas. walkways and greenhouses (Selbig, 2013).
Pervious concrete was first introduced in the Another benefit of the light color of pervious
1800s in Europe as pavement surface walks. concrete is that it is more reflective and
Previously, in the 19th century this concrete was therefore brighter during the evening and night
used in a variety of purposes such as load than dark pavements. The lighter color of the
bearing walls, panels and paving. The use of this surface has the potential of reducing the amount
material is very limited because of its lower of lighting required. In conventional,
strength (Kevern & Wang, 2013). It became impermeable concrete pavements, the light color
more popular in Europe after the Second World has been shown to reduce the lighting
War due to the shortage of cement. It wasn’t requirement by 30 % (Ashley, 2011)
until 1923 when pervious concrete resurfaced as
a usable construction material. In that time, it Though Pervious concrete only needs three basic
was applied in a limited way to the construction materials to build (binders, aggregates and
of two story homes. (Chopra, 2012) water) The mix design is critical in achieving
quality pervious concrete pavement and can
Pervious concrete is a special type of highly present challenges. Some investigations around
porous concrete because when it is mixed with the world show important advances in pervious
little or no fine material at all it allows high concrete development. Cement paste
volumes of water to pass through into the soil by characteristics and porous concrete properties
means of natural filtration (Mayorga, 2018) are studied. The results indicate that cement
paste characteristics are dependent on the water
Today, Pervious concrete pavement systems to cement ratio (W/C) studied the cement paste
were claimed to help control the amount of characteristics and porous concrete properties.
contaminants in waterways, through reducing or (Mayorga, 2018)
eliminating runoff, and allowing treatment of
pollution (Hoque, 2019). Another additional It is necessary to achieve the correct balance in
benefit of pervious concrete pavement, similar the mix design in order to have adequate
to any concrete pavement, is that if there is durability and permeability. Admixtures, fine
runoff over the surface, it will not become aggregate and fibers have all been used to
heated. Surfaces that are dark in color such as improve the performance of pervious concrete
roofs and asphalt parking lots can cause runoff mixes (Sonebi, 2016). Slight compaction of the
that is much higher in temperature than the surface is also necessary to develop strength in
rainfall naturally was. Heated runoff is the material and minimize future raveling. In
detrimental to aquatic life if it reaches streams addition, the mix should be handled minimally
and waterways (Selbig, 2013) and efficiently in order to achieve optimum
quality (Henderson, 2012)
Recently, Pervious concrete pavement becomes
more suitable in rural areas to reduce the storm Researches suggests that a pervious concrete
water runoff, to increase the ground water level, with higher than 20% but less than 35% of
and to eliminate the costly storm water binders (cement) may create stronger concrete
 STUDY ON PERVIOUS CONCRETE AS AN ALTERNATIVE ROADWAY DRAINAGE
SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

than those with less than 20%. Sizes of The use of Pervious concrete is prevalent around
aggregates may also affect the permeability rate, the world and was evident with the abundance of
but with only little variation, and comppressive researches and studies, yet in the Philippines
strength of the concrete. More variety of the researches on this product are barely seen. Thus,
aggregates was better than only small variations this library research was conducted to develop a
of aggregates sizes and applied compression on study on pervious concrete as an alternative
the surface also increases the compressive
roadway drainage system in the Philippines in
strength (Santos, 2018).
compliance with the standards set by the
Though it has a lot of advantages the climate and Department of Works and Highways and the
other factors may affect the performance of a tropical climate of the country.
pervious concrete. In Canada, a research shows
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
several disadvantages on the use of Pervious
concrete due to its cold climate. In summer the 1. Assessment of the performance of pervious
concrete decreases its permeability due to frozen concrete of the counties with a similar
water, when a power washing equipment was climate in the Philippines
used the permeability decreased more due to the 2. Evaluation of the practicability of pervious
debris being pushed deeper (Henderson, 2012). concrete in contrast with present drainage
Because of the rougher surface texture and open system in the Philippines.
structure of pervious concrete, abrasion and 3. Determining whether the average
raveling of aggregate particles can be a problem, compressive and flexural strength of
pervious concrete complies with the given
particularly where snowplows are used to clear
standard strength of roadway drainage
pavements. Surface raveling in new pervious
system in the Philippines.
concrete can occur when rocks loosely bound to
the surface pop out under traffic loads (Portland RESEARCH METHODS
Cement Association, 2019). ,

This library research was conducted to

An evaluation in Japan also state the same determine the practicability of the use of
problem with decreased permeability yet the Pervious concrete in the Philippines. An in-
overall service was acceptable due to its depth evaluation was conducted to determine
durability, skid resistance and permeability underlying factors that may affect pervious
(Nishizawa, Murata, & Kokubu, 2020). In rural concrete in the environment present in the
areas of India, pervious concrete were shown to country. It also includes comparison of data
effectively absorb water in contrast to from different researches throughout the world
impervious pavement (Shah, 2013). Another for its reliability. The data was primarily
research was conducted in Ecuador and the collected from articles, researches, experiments
pervious concrete not only mitigated the and journals from the web and the data collected
problems of flooding but the concrete also were exclusive within 10 years ago. An in-depth
enable the reuse of rain water collected from the analysis of the website was conducted by the
system (Petroche, Vidal, Rodriguez, & Ramirez, researcher to ensure reliable sources and an up
2016). With a tropical climate in the Philippines, to date results from a reputable source. These
the use of pervious concrete as alternative sources were cited at the last part of this paper to
drainage system is a promising way to address avoid plagiarism.
potential flooding.
Data Collection and Analysis. This paper
RESEARCH GAP collected information from researches and
experiments from countries with similar tropical
climate that implemented the use of Pervious
 STUDY ON PERVIOUS CONCRETE AS AN ALTERNATIVE ROADWAY DRAINAGE
SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

concrete (India, Indonesia, and Ecuador). The Performance of pervious concrete in tropical
data were then compared to determine an countries. In India pervious concrete was used
educated guess for the use of pervious concrete as sidewalks, after years in service a test was
in the Philippines in compliance with the conducted and results shows that pervious
climate. The price of materials used in the pavement layers can be adopted everywhere in
production of pervious concrete was also all the cities, where the traffic flow is less. It
collected from different construction firms that maintains storm water to percolate and recharges
uses pervious concrete and the data were ground water table (Shah, 2013). It is very
compared to the prices of the materials present useful in the cities like Bangalore to adopt these
in the Philippines. In terms of the characteristics techniques to generate the water to the locality.
and flexural strength of the pervious concrete, Helps in maintaining the pavement clean and do
the researcher gathered different data from not clogs (Kala, Kavitha, & D R , 2019). A
several testing and experiments. The information research in Indonesia also suggest that pervious
was grouped to create a set of information concrete meets the strength requirements for
regarding its correct aggregates-binder ratio, local roads (Mulyono & Anisah, 2018).
permeability and durability. These data were
A research conducted to test a pervious concrete
then evaluated with the compliance to the
Ecuador shows significant improvement in
standards of roadway constructions set by the
controlling water run-off during wet season and
Department of Public Works and Highways
preserving water resources. The pervious
(DPWH).
concrete also addresses the same serviceability
RESULTS of impervious concrete after a month of testing
(Petroche, Vidal, Rodriguez, & Ramirez, 2016).
All of the researches and experiments were
gathered from the web. The information Pervious concrete was also found to gain little
collected was categorized in order to fulfill the heat is sunny days in comparison to impervious
objectives of the study: These are 1: surfaces; as the color is darker, and the porosity
Performance of pervious concrete in tropical created an evaporative benefit as well as less
countries. 2: Practicability of pervious concrete heat transfer. Nigh time rain also provide
in the Philippines. 3: Flexural strength of additional cooling to the system (Lorenzi,
pervious concrete in compliance to the standard Haselbach, Filho, Pessutto, & Bidinotto, 2018).
set by the DPWH.
Practicability of pervious concrete in the
Philippines. The weight of a pervious concrete
is about 145 lbs/ft 3 which is 5 pounds lighter
than impervious concrete which weighs
150 lbs/ft 3. Researches suggests that a pervious
concrete with higher than 20% but less than 35%
of binders (cement) may create stronger concrete
than those with less than 20%.

The price of three-fold gravel in the Philippines

is approximately PHP 20 per ft 3 and cement
costs around PHP 250 per ft 3. With this data the
average cost of 1 ft 3 of pervious concrete would
cost around PHP 66.00 – PHP 100.5 per ft 3 .
While one ft 3of an impervious concrete would
 STUDY ON PERVIOUS CONCRETE AS AN ALTERNATIVE ROADWAY DRAINAGE
SYSTEM IN THE PHILIPPINES

cost around PHP 128.67 – PHP 161.14 CONCLUSION

(PHILCONPRICES, 2019).
The study on pervious concrete as an alternative
Compressive and flexural strength of roadway drainage system resulted to several
pervious concrete in compliance to the information relevant in building pervious
standard set by the DPWH. Laboratory tests concrete designs than traditional drainage in the
shows pervious concrete mixtures develop Philippines. These may address several
compressive strengths in the range of 500 to problems such as flashfloods and contaminated
4000 psi (3.5 MPa to 28 MPa), which is suitable waters since pervious concrete can filter out
for a wide range of applications. Typical values large foreign bodies and absorb water better than
are about 2500 psi (17 MPa). While flexural other drainage system due to its high
strength in pervious concretes generally ranges permeability. The materials used also are
between about 150 psi (1 MPa) and 550 psi (3.8 cheaper and widely abundant in the market.
MPa). Many factors influence the flexural Higher than 20% but less than 35% of cement
strength, particularly degree of compaction, mixture may create stronger concrete than those
porosity, and the aggregate-to-cement (A/C) with less than 20%. Sizes of aggregates may
ratio. However, the typical application also affect the permeability rate, but with only
constructed with pervious concrete does not little variation. The compressive strength of
require the measurement of flexural strength for pervious concrete is 3.5-28 MPa (500-4000 psi)
design (NRMCA, 2011). and within the standard compressive strength of
concrete pavement set by the DPWH which is
The DPWH set the strength of a concrete 24.1 MPa.
pavement/road related technology to be 24.1
MPa (3500 psi) for cores taken at fourteen days. RECOMMENDATION
While the flexural strength must be not less than The researcher found out that Pervious concrete
3.5 MPa (550 Psi). While the recommended can be used as alternative roadway drainage in
compressive strength of inlets is 20.682 MPa the Philippines through the use of Library
(3000 psi) (Department of Public Works and research from different tests and experiments in
Highways, 2005). These shows that pervious the internet. Thus, an Experimental approach is
concrete can be applied as roadway drainage necessary to reenact the experiments for
system in the Philippines since the compressive pervious concrete using the materials present in
strength of a pervious concrete is within the the Philippines (aggregates and binders).
range of the set standard.

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