Wetlands Group
Problem 3: "Hardscaping": Sidewalks, Parking Lots, and Other Paved Areas

With even small rain events, puddles form quickly over sidewalks and paved areas throughout the campus.  Besides being unsightly, these puddles limit pedestrian and vehicular access for students, professors, prospective students, and other important visitors.  Safety is another concern.  Sidewalks become slippery and the inner loop and parking lots can be difficult to drive on when wet.

Figure 6.  Students tip-toeing through a large puddle on their way to class.

Analysis of the Current Situation:

• Based on our survey, students consider campus sidewalks and parking lots to be a great inconvenience.  For survey-based opinions on the most problematic areas on campus, see Appendix C.  The grass is wet around the sidewalks, so there is no other place to walk except through the puddles.  When people get out of their cars, they often have to step in puddles in the parking lots.
• Most of these puddles are caused by uneven pavement.

  
  Figure 7.  Puddle covering sidewalk near Sewall Hall.

Criteria and Tradeoffs:
We need to make the following considerations:

• Student and visitor convenience
• Cost
• Aesthetics

Proposals:

• We need to resurface the worst parking lots on campus.  Because uneven surfaces in pavement promote puddles, leveling parking lots and other paved surfaces will not allow such puddles to form.
• We need to raise and level the worst sidewalks on campus, to prevent water from collecting in low areas.
   

Problem 4: Stormwater

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