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Remember this past spring when the Cheney Stadium Sustainable Stormwater Project was awarded a Greenroads Silver Certification, making Tacoma's Clay Huntington Way the first Greenroad in Tacoma and the fourth in the world? It was a glorious green day in Tacoma. Actually, it was a glorious silver day.

Good news. Tacoma throughways Wapato Lake Drive, Asotin Court and Alaska Street are now certified Greenroads, too. In fact, Alaska Street is Silver Certified.

Wapato and Asotin are currently in the review process.  

With four streets, Tacoma is the first U.S. city to have multiple Greenroads.

An international standard, the Greenroads Rating System is a collection of sustainable roadway design and construction best practices that address water, environment, access, community impact, construction practices and materials. There are 11 project requirements that must be completed for a roadway to be considered a Greenroad. After a rigorous review process, the Greenroads Foundation assigns a project score based on the number of points earned by meeting the requirements and achieving credits. This score translates to one of four certification levels: Certified, Silver, Gold and Evergreen.

Want to know the best part? These Greenroad projects actually cost substantially less than a more conventional roadway project would.

"Cheney, Wapato and Asotin where about half the cost of traditional improvements. Alaska Street was less too, but a much smaller fraction," says Jessica Knickerbocker of the city of Tacoma's Environmental Services, Science & Engineering Division. "But the stormwater requirements were less for Alaska Street and we had only a small portion of the project with green infrastructure."  

LINK: Cheney Stadium Sustainable Stormwater Project is actually cool