Bikes and Sewers

From the Atlantic Monthly post on stormwater management:

"In the Midwest, Indianapolis is leading the way. Stormwater planters and bioswales with native grasses run almost the entire length of the city’s Cultural Trail, a state-of-the-art bicycle and pedestrian route built over the past six years that wends its way for eight miles through the downtown streets of Indiana’s largest city.

Streetfilms took a look at the bioswales recently on a rainy day in Indy. The footage below offers a great look at how they work in action, with water filling up the trenches and then slowly draining off without ever entering the sewer system. The plantings also serve to separate bicycles from both car traffic and from pedestrians along the path. The project as a whole has added 500 trees and eight acres of green space to Indianapolis, and at the same time it's saving the city money in water treatment costs."

Check out the video on the project at the Streetfilms link.