Surface Water Infiltration & Soakaway

Where ground conditions are suitable, sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) can be used to manage and promote soakaway applications, which allow surface water to infiltrate into the ground, replenishing natural water courses and aquifers.

A soakaway solution can be provided as part of either our Permavoid system (a shallow geocellular solution), or our Polystorm system (a deep geocellular system), allowing surface water run-off to infiltrate into the ground, which would otherwise have been prevented by impermeable developments.


Either solution can be wrapped in a standard geotextile such as Permatex 300, our Polystorm soakaway geotextiles, or a treatment geotextile such as Permafilter. Permafilter has been specifically designed to retain hydrocarbon pollutants and is capable of retaining up to 6L of oil per 10m².


This infiltration process also helps to prevent water sources and soils from drying out, thereby protecting local biodiversity and amenity.

  • Polystorm - Geocellular System

    The tried and tested Polystorm geocellular range is designed to provide retention, attenuation or soakaway at a variety of depths. It is ideally suited to deeper applications and can accommodate a wide range of traffic loadings, from pedestrianised areas to large HGV parks.

  • Permavoid - Geocellular System

    The Permavoid system comprises of high strength modular cells suitable for sub-base replacement at shallow depths, plus components that incorporate silt/oil treatment and shallow flow controls into the system.


Project examples