Trade Journals for the Concrete Industry

Growing cities don’t just create more traffic—they also create more stormwater. As cities continue to grow, engineers and city officials face a significant challenge: controlling stormwater to prevent flooding. Stormwater management is especially challenging in flood-prone areas where high population density and heavy rainfall can spell disaster for local homes and businesses. Innovative use of concrete in the form of Precast Modular Block (PMB) retaining walls can play a key role in flood protection. PMB retaining walls are being used throughout the world to create effective storm channels, retention ponds, and detention ponds. They maximize usable real estate because they rely on massive blocks to hold back the earth. Massive block size also allows walls to be built incredibly close to property lines because the blocks don’t require reinforcement with geogrid or tiebacks. Many installers compare building PMB walls to building a giant Lego block wall; simply prepare a proper base course and stack blocks up.