The design drawings were completed in mid 1989 when our company name was Ritterings and our products were Grassrings and Pillowdrain. The Grassrings was a 3” molded black plastic ring hand glued onto white polyester netting. Pillowdrain, an invention of Bill Bohnhoff, one of the owners of the company, was a filter fabric pillow of custom size sewn together and stuffed with styrofoam plastic packaging worms. It acted to detain stormwater and clean it up before entering the soil. Twelve years later, it is still in place and working in the swale between the parking bays. This marina facility is used by the National Park Service for marina access to Biscayne Bay for patrolling the waters and enforcing good boating practices. The parking lot has timber curbs, i.e. bumper stops, that were bolted to a 6”x12” footing. The grass reinforcing mats abutted the asphalt drive and over time have grown beyond the edge. The stormwater that falls on the asphalt drains toward the Grassrings parking area, then the excess water further drains toward the center spine where there is landscaping and the Pillowdrain vegetated swale.

North side of grass parking lot showing the timber bumpers and vegetated swale down the middle.

South side of parking bays showing full extent of parking area. This job was installed in 1989 and with good maintenance, still looks very nice twelve years later.