Porous Lane Permeable Paving by Watersmart

Porous Lane Permeable Paving

Watersmart

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Description

Porous Lane is a next-generation permeable pavement system and the only commercially available solution in New Zealand made from recycled tyres, offering unmatched sustainability, circular economy impact, and stormwater performance. Designed for use in urban infrastructure such as tree pits, shared paths, and low-traffic surfaces, it achieves 8–10x higher permeability than international best-practice guidelines while actively contributing to urban cooling, tree health, and stormwater attenuation.

Key Features

Reduces stormwater run-off & mitigates flooding
Removes pollutants — increases water quality
Reduces urban heat island effect — 3-4 degrees cooler than regular asphalt
Made with up to 60% of waste tyre content, diverting tyres from landfill
25 year design life
Slip & skid resistant (highest, P5)
Low carbon footprint — Up to 79% less embodied carbon than concrete & up to 45% less than asphalt
Crack-resistant & semi-flexible
Provides better urban tree health
Low maintenance
Comes in 12 different colour options

Scope of Use

Porous Lane is designed for use in urban environments such as tree pits, pedestrian pathways, cycleways, light vehicle accessways, residential driveways, and low-speed car parks. It is suitable for applications with occasional service vehicle access, provided appropriate subgrade design is incorporated.

Tree pits / Tree surrounds
Footpaths
Cycleways
Shared Paths
Paths in tree protection zones and/or bridging over tree roots
Carparks
Light-duty driveways

Limitations on Use

Porous Lane is not currently recommended for high ravelling environments such as steep slopes or high shear turning areas (e.g. tight intersections or logistics yards with forklift traffic). These locations may accelerate surface wear.

It is not intended for continuous heavy vehicle loading (e.g. freight corridors or arterial roads). Testing for higher-load applications is ongoing, with future iterations to be validated under New Zealand-specific load conditions.

In-Service History

Porous Lane is a commercialised University of Melbourne product with active presence around Australia over the last 8 years and hundreds of projects completed.

WaterSmart launched Porous Lane in New Zealand in mid-2025 with 9 successful installations completed by the end of 2025.

Other Performance Attributes

Porous Lane qualities and impact were independently tested to ensure environmental safety and compliance with EPA guidelines.
Improves water quality as recorded in Journal of Environmental Management 323 (2022) Nitrates: Achieved a 95% reduction compared to baseline levels. Total Suspended Solids (TSS): Observed a 66% decrease. Turbidity: 89% reduction. Heavy Metals: Reductions of up to 89%.
No Leachate Contamination — laboratory leachate testing of permeable pavements containing 50% Tyre Derived Aggregates confirmed that heavy metal and PAH concentrations are well below EPA thresholds.
No Excess Microplastics — detected trace levels were lower than bottled water (avg. 13 particles/L in popular bottled brands)