Curbing Sediment: A Prototyping Process to Explore How to Capture Road Pollutants in Stormwater Events via Curb and Apron Redesign

Abstract

The design of a curb is straight forward. The curb itself provides a conveyance of stormwater, facilitating the movement of water and pollutants from the street into waterways. Pollutants such as sediment, nutrients from lawn fertilizers, bacteria, viruses, pesticides, metals, and petroleum byproducts accumulate on the road surface and are released during storm events, carried to storm drains, and deposited into waterways, often without treatment. Once pollutants enter the waterways they impact the ecosystem and affect water quality. How can discrete standards-like a curb-be leveraged to have larger systemic impacts? The redesign of the curb to perform as a magnet for pollutants can challenge this design standard. During the summer of 2019, the interdisciplinary research team tested alternatives to the standard concrete curb and apron at Ohio State University. The team used an iterative design process to add patterning and crenellations to the face of the curb and apron. Using full scale models to test simulated storm events, the team collected data to evaluate the performance of 21 alternative designs. The results suggest the new combined curb and apron designs can abstract pollutants from roadways before they are detrimental to water bodies and aquatic ecosystems.