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Muhannad Suleiman, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, has received the Lindback Foundation Career-Enhancement Grant for Minority Junior Faculty Members, which will help fund his research to design a sustainable pavement system.
This proposed pavement would be made of pervious materials that allow water to pass through the pavement and help purify the water as it seeps into the ground. This would result in several benefits to people and the environment, including a reduction in the volume of direct water runoff from pavement, enhanced quality of storm water, improved skid resistance, and a reduction in pavement noise.
“A pervious pavement system that is designed to eliminate the possibility of contaminating groundwater, will recharge the groundwater and improve the safety of roads, especially during rainy weather,” Suleiman explains. “Recharging groundwater is very important worldwide, especially in areas where most of the rain is not effectively used.”
During the spring semester, Debra Perrone ’08, who graduated May 24 with a B.S. in civil engineering, worked on the project as an EXCEL scholar. She assisted Suleiman with preparing pervious concrete mixes using aggregates available in Pennsylvania. Her work was the first step of this research to be conducted using resources entirely from Pennsylvania.
“Debra will be going to graduate school in environmental engineering and I believe this project will help in opening several opportunities for her in the future,” says Suleiman.
Suleiman says the project will continue into the spring of 2009 and he plans to utilize students each semester until then. He has been working on related pervious pavement projects for roughly three years.