LibGuides: Contaminants in Roadside Soils: Remediation and Control

Techniques for remediation and control of pollutants

Because most of the studies, articles and papers dealing with remediation and control focus on pollutants entering nearby water sources and stormwater flows, only resources that appear to compare contaminants filtered through roadside swales, buffers, and other vegetation barriers to roadside soils are included.

Percolation through soil is an effective treatment for road runoff
The broad drainage of runoff and its infiltration into the road bank with a percolation through planted natural soil is the most common treatment for road runoff from roads and countryside highways. In this presentation, the efficiency of several treatments is compared. Input and output of heavy metals, mineral oil and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) were measured in roadside soils, lysimeters in road banks and two types of basins receiving road runoff. (2006)
Storm Water Pollutant Removal in Roadside Vegetated Buffer Strips
Objectives of the study were to generate design criteria and to determine whether standard roadway design requirements result in buffer strips with treatment equivalent to those specifically engineered for water quality performance. The quantity and quality of the runoff discharged from the buffer strip were compared with freeway runoff collected at the edge of pavement. (2007)
Pollution retention capabilities of roadside soils
Runoff from highways contains significant loads of heavy metals and hydrocarbons. According to German regulations, it should be infiltrated over embankments to support groundwater-recharge. To investigate the decontaminating effect of greened embankments, soil-monoliths from highways with high traffic densities were taken. 1999