Cities with streets that have trees are much more human and pleasant for their citizens. I am lucky to live in a city that has many of its streets with trees on the pedestrian sidewalks on both sides of the street or at walking paths and the feeling of pur air and the shaded spaces that they provide on sunny days are extraordinary.
For municipality technicians, the existence of trees means the need to establish cleaning and maintenance plans and often, depending on the climatic zone, irrigation plans. There is also often a greater number of citizens who, due to distraction, suffer sprains or trip falls into tree pits.
Among the different possible solutions such as filling them with wood bark or installing wooden slat panels, steel or alternative metal grates, the most efficient, comfortable, economical and sustainable option is the use of rubber flooring.
One of the most interesting solutions is the use of bonded granulated recycled rubber or rubber mulch, either in a single layer of the thickness necessary to complete full depth of the tree pit or with two layers using a base of SBR recycled from tires, all on a sub-base of aggregates, also bonded with polyurethane binder and sometimes with a previous geo-textile layer below the aggregates to avoid weeds.
As it is a permeable solution with a high water infiltration rate, it makes both natural irrigation by rain or snow and artificial irrigation very efficient, and the accessibility of the pit area is perfect, as the surface is completely aligned with the pedestrian sidewalk. At the same time its visual appearance can be very natural and pleasant, it needs no maintenance as replacement of loose aggregates, cleaning of trash, cigarettes or animal wastes and is cheaper than steel grates or wood slat pannels.
Some of our CONICA’s clients, with extensive experience in rubber flooring, have turned this kind of application into an interesting line of business and have achieved a considerable know-how on it and maybe you also can do it.
Take care
Rubberman Blog 