Oxfordshire County Council has taken a positive and pragmatic approach to adopting streets and other areas using concrete block permeable paving for some 15 years.

The Lamb Drove SuDS Monitoring project in Cambourne demonstrates that SuDS work and should cost less. It also highlights the robust performance of concrete block permeable paving.

This case study – updated with 2012 site visits – looks at how precast concrete paving, including permeable paving, forms an important part of the hard landscaping palette of a major multi-disciplinary practice involved with a diversity of projects.

With the recent completion of public realm regeneration at the east London Brownfield Estate, Interpave has substantially updated its case study on this exemplary project. Brownfield includes modernist architect Ernö Goldfinger’s listed, ‘brutalist’ concrete high-rise blocks – including Balfron Tower – from the late 60’s and early ’70s.

This case study demonstrates how concrete block permeable paved drives, parking and adopted roads can store and treat runoff from all the hard surfaces on a typical new housing development without any additional land-take or other SuDS features.

This case study examines the latest innovation in kerbs designed to protect cyclists in cities. Initially developed for the London CS2 cycleway extension, the latest generation of precast concrete cycleway segregation kerb units has also been used as part of the Nottingham Cycle City Ambition Programme.

This case study shows that there is more to concrete block permeable paving than just meeting the latest legislative demands to help reduce flooding.

Interpave’s 2015 revisit explores the successful long-term use of concrete block permeable paving around a state-of-the-art secondary school and its benefits for wildlife. It demonstrates the use of terraced compartments using flow control chambers and straightforward, non-specialised maintenance of concrete block permeable paving.

A pictorial tour around several linked developments in this growth area of the city. It focuses on the role of precast concrete paving – including permeable pavements as part of SuDS – in helping to define each area’s character, integrated with architectural design and master-planning.

This RIBA Award winning school displays an exemplary approach to sustainable drainage, with a SuDS and landscape scheme integrated into the overall project from the very start. Solving complex issues, the drainage scheme utilises several SuDS techniques – including concrete block permeable paving – within a fully developed management train.