At New Dawn, our years of expertise and experience in permeable paving means that we’re equipped to handle many different types of commercial applications. Last year, we worked with a commercial builder on a paving installation for the Sunbury and Macedon Ranges Specialist School renovation project.
The goal of this installation was to create a functional external space between the school buildings for the school kids whilst aiming to protect the existing trees around the school.
We worked with the landscape architect at the design stage, providing detailed pavement cross sections and specifications for the client and arborist to approve. Based on all the necessary requirements, we then constructed the pavement for the project builder.
The Problem & Project Scope
Tree Protection
The major challenge for the client that we needed to address was ensuring that the large existing mature trees around the school were protected and enabled water to access their root zones, all the while creating an renovated external space. This needed to be considered at the very early stage of planning.
The specifications of scope were to provide a permeable paving solution suitable for 100% coverage of the Tree Protection Zone (TPZ), which is the area around the tree that is protected under planning rules to promote the health of the trees’ roots and canopy.
Intricate Paving Design
Within a school site, we wanted to provide exciting colours and interest to the space. We also couldn’t use loose materials, such as pebbles or mulch, that students could throw or mess around. The architect also wanted to create intricate octagon patterns that required careful planning and precise execution in the pouring of permeable paving.
Careful Paving Installation
The installation was on a sensitive heritage site with existing heritage buildings and trees that required a high level of care. In particular we had to ensure all works were in compliance with AS 4970-2009 (Protection of trees on development sites), with no compaction or disturbance of the soil within the tree protection zones. Another challenge of the install was incorporating suitable movement joints into the large pavement to control cracking in the event of reactive soil or root movement.
New Dawn’s Paving Solution
Planning Stage
During the planning process for this project, we needed to provide specifications to the
architect to satisfy the client and project arborists that the trees would remain healthy and protected with our proposed solution. We proposed to them our permeable paving solution that is 100% permeable and allows water straight to the root zone of the trees, protecting them and ensuring that they can continue to grow for years to come.
Paving Execution
We executed a complex octagon paving design and incorporated suitable expansion joints into the pavement without compromising the design intent or layout. The octagons also contained a variety of colours to brighten up the school area. This entire paving installation was successfully completed within a strict, tight commercial schedule by the New Dawn team.
For this installation we provided the client with all aspects of a pavement construction from subgrade preparation, a concrete base and resin bound paving installation. The process from beginning to end included:
- Site Preparation
- Concrete base installation
- Paving installation
