Amount awarded: £50,000
Led by: Imperial College London
Untreated sewage is discharged into waterways from combined sewer overflows (CSO), significantly impacting public health and the environment through its harmful pollutants, which occurred >300,000 times in England in 2022. We have developed a next-generation permeable pavement (Kiacrete) with proven high performance that captures stormwater. Our aim is to develop and test a new modular precast Kiacrete pavement system, that stores and gradually releases stormwater to significantly decrease the frequency and severity of CSO events. This will lead to significant environmental and public health improvements, more resilient and sustainable water sector and built environment infrastructure, and lower water customer bills.
Watch this interview with the project from July 2023:
Following on from the successful development and testing of the new precast Kiacrete slabs, the first permanent Kiacrete pavement was built in the centre of Liverpool, UK in March 2025. This new cycleway next to Chinatown was delivered as part of the Live Labs 2 project for Liverpool City Council in partnership with Colas, A E Yates, Mott MacDonald, the Environmental Protection Group, Attlebridge Concrete and Polypipe. The cycleway utilises 48 green pigmented precast Kiacrete slabs, which are placed on top of geocellular storage tanks. The combination of the Kiacrete slabs and the storage tanks provides stormwater attenuation to help reduce the frequency and severity of CSO events.
