Nicholas Erickson, Fitchburg's commissioner of public works, stands on a strip of permeable asphalt walkway installed between sections of traditional concrete in the city’s Gateway Park May 15.

A completed section of path shows the color and smoothness of the finish. Water percolates through the pavement into the ground, where it is returned to the water table naturally. A new kind of ...

Look around. Pavement is everywhere. It covers much of what we drive and walk on, including roads, parking lots, sidewalks and pedestrian paths. It’s also impervious, for the most part. That means ...

Holes in porous pavement can get clogged with debris. Worcester uses porous pavement on some parking lots at parks. Porous pavement is 10% to 20% more expensive than traditional asphalt. (Correction: ...