GREEN BAY, Wis. (NBC 26) — Green Bay is going green as part of a street project happening in the city starting next month.
If you take a drive down Eliza Street, you get what some will say a fabulous view of the Fox River.
"It's always entertaining," Green Bay property owner Jeanette Dufeck said.
Dufeck lives and owns a duplex right by the Fox River on the west end of Eliza Street.
Part of her driveway is blacktop, and another has blocks with grass in between.
"The easiest way to describe them is that they have holes in them," Dufeck said.
They're called permeable pavers, which filters runoff from rainwater and snowmelt.
Dufeck says the blocks haven't cracked or sunk.
"They've held up wonderful," Dufeck said. "I mean, it's almost we think it's about 20 years since we did this, and we haven't done anything to them."
A portion of Eliza Street is set to follow something similar to Dufeck's concept.
Starting next month, a small stretch near Madison and Eliza Streets will be replaced with permeable pavers.
"You know, this gives us another tool in the toolbox," Green Bay Assistant Director of Public Works James Brunette said.
The project will be the first of its kind on a city street.
Brunette says the city received an $85,000 grant from Fund for Lake Michigan — a non-profit — to cover most of the project, which he says will be eco-friendly to the Fox River.
"It's mainly for a treatment to filter the stormwater," Brunette said. "So, you get cleaner stormwater going into the river."
Brunette says the pavers can only handle so much water, so if that happens, he says they will function like any other normal street.
The project's purpose is to improve the environment.
"I think it's a win-win all the way around," Dufeck said.
So that the Fox River can stay healthy.
Brunette says the project is expected to wrap up sometime in the fall.
