Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana

Sign up for our eList! Our eList keeps you up to date on events and opportunites for Girl Scouts of all ages. It's simple! Just sign up below.

Newsroom

Concrete Isn't the Same Ole Concrete at the Girl Scout Program and Learning Center

7/13/2006

Contacts:

Jim Deters, Executive Director, Kentucky Ready Mixed Concrete Association, 1-800-737-1535, jdeters@krmca.org
John McChord, P.E., Director of Engineering, Kentucky Ready Mixed Concrete Association, 1-800-737-1535, jmcchord@krmca.org

LouisvilleDid you know concrete can contribute to improving water quality? On Tuesday, June 13, area architects, engineers, developers, and contractors found out just how environmentally important a special type of concrete can be.

Thanks to the Kentuckiana Concrete Promotion Group (KCPG), the Kentucky Ready Mixed Concrete Association (KRMCA), the ACI- Kentucky Chapter, the Ohio Valley Concrete Promotional Committee (OVCPC) and the Indiana Ready Mixed Concrete Association (IRMCA), a new pervious concreteparking area was installed at the Girl Scout Program and Learning Center. Experts were on hand to demonstrate its environmental qualities. The parking area, located at the new Girl Scout headquarters on Lexington Road, features the special concrete.

Spectators watch a demonstration of many gallons of water being poured onto the new pervious concrete, which soaked up all of the water like a sponge.

Essentially, pervious concrete is structural concrete pavement that "drinks" water. Water can pass through it rather than run off into storm drains, carrying oil and other pollutants with it. Pervious concrete has a porous structure, allowing rainwater to pass directly through the pavement into a storage layer of stone underneath, then into the soil naturally. This specific type of concrete filters and cleans storm water before it reaches water stored beneath the earth.

John Vaughan (previous Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana board member), Lyndy Alexander (Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana chief financial officer), and Craig Smith (Smith Concrete) pose for a photo after the impressive water demonstration.

"The various Kentucky and Indiana Concrete Associations are very excited to be a partner with the Girl Scout Program and Learning Center to provide this new section to our parking area, said Lyndy Alexander, chief financial officer, Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana. Now visitors will have a safe area on which to park and walk. Pervious Concrete, with its value as a storm water management system alternative, will allow engineers, architects and those interested in soil, water, and the environment to have options to traditional systems such as retention ponds currently being utilized in storm water management control."

Workers whose companies are volunteering their time to the Girl Scout pervious concrete project spread the freshly poured concrete onto the last section of parking area.

An environmentally safe soybean water-repellent, THE BEAN, was applied to the pervious concrete after it was poured to help protect the surface, especially during the curing period. THE BEAN is manufactured in Indiana from Indiana soybeans and is safe for plants and animals.

Partners with the Girl Scouts on this project include the following:

Kentuckiana Concrete Promotion Group (KCPG)
Kentucky Ready Mixed Concrete Association (KRMCA)
American Concrete Institute - Kentucky Chapter
Ohio Valley Concrete Promotion Group (OVCPG)
Indiana Ready Mixed Concrete Association (IRMCA)

For more information on the project, please call the Kentucky Ready Mixed Concrete Association (KRMCA) at 1-800-737-1535.

Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana serves girls throughout 57 counties in Kentucky, southern Indiana, and Tennessee (Obion County). With the help of 7,000 volunteers, Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.