Atlanta wrapping up permeable paver flood-prevention work

Atlanta Watershed Management has begun the final phase of installing permeable pavers as a flood-prevention device. The brick-like street surfaces are designed to intercept, detain and slowly release storm water to prevent runoff and overflows.

Crews are putting the pavers in on Windsor Street between Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard and Glenn Street, and on Garibaldi Street between Abernathy and Bass Street, both in the Mechanicsville neighborhood in southwest Atlanta.

So far, newly installed pavers have captured about 5 million gallons of storm water runoff in the city, Watershed Management said. In 2015, the agency began one of the largest permeable paver retrofit projects in North America, installing roughly six miles of pavers in the Peoplestown, Summerhill and Mechanicsville.