Marsupial Environmental Services (MES) undertook a porous paving project for Brisbane City Council last month to combat erosion and create a formal pathway at Kangaroo Point, Brisbane.
The project was a first of its kind for Brisbane City Council, with a series of innovative porous surfacing technologies specifically designed for the site and its unique Arboriculture and Environmental requirements.
Porous paving is a water / air permeable structural paving system that infiltrates precipitation, mitigates stormwater runoff, and reduces temperatures. The accentuated air and water flow through the product into the soil, significantly reducing the watershed runoff from hardstand areas. Trees utilise the water within their root systems, and contaminated water is absorbed into the soils, reducing the flow into our waterways.
The project aim was to turn the ‘desired path’ – a path formed as a consequence of erosion caused by human traffic and usually the shortest or most easily navigated route – into a safe and functional formal path while protecting the surrounding environment and significant trees. It was a complex process due to the large elevated tree roots systems impacting the area and a large amount of overland watershed that compounded the erosion on the site and around the trees.
MES undertook a detailed review of the site to develop, design, and install a new dynamic porous footpath that looks stylish while being flexible enough to adapt to the tree root system.
The new porous footpath not only solves the problem with trip hazards around the various tree roots, but it has also provided a structural sound footpath capable of sustaining bikes and pedestrian foot traffic, enables soils and trees to obtain water, and dramatically reduces soil compaction through foot traffic.
Another big benefit is that all the water from heavy rainfall on the uphill side is now baffled through the footpath, allowing the water to be dispersed and percolate deep into the site soils and tree roots, whilst reducing the erosion to the lower treed area.
Marsupial Environmental Services is providing 3 months of maintenance of the grass areas and watering the footpath to water the trees through the porous surface. This new type of porous rubber / aggregate footpath is highly flexible and dramatically reduces compaction by compressive recoil through the surface whilst have a clear separation of foot traffic from the root systems and soils.
