A permeable paving project at St Marys earned City of Mitcham a state and national award in 2020.
Under the project, paving material made with recycled tyres was installed as part of a major field trial in sustainable urban drainage design.
The project won the Excellence in Infrastructure Delivery Award at the Local Government Professionals Leadership Excellence Awards in June 2020, and was highly commended in the category of Environmental Leadership and Sustainability Award as part of the National Federation Awards - LG Professionals Australia Awards in December.
The trial is located in the car park at Laura Avenue, St Marys Park, using permeable paving made from 50 per cent recycled tyres, to be tested under various traffic loads.
This innovative trial hopes to provide many benefits to the environment, including harvesting water to help water nearby trees and gardens, increase groundwater recharge, reduce surface runoff, decrease the risk of flash-flooding and help with the treatment of storm water.
Cutting edge equipment has been installed below the surface of the parking bays to monitor the performance of the pavement as well as record the surface temperature of the different pavement colours.
The trial will investigate the product performance of the Waste Tyre Permeable Pavement as part of more comprehensive irrigation and storm-water management solutions for urban areas, an important consideration for South Australia as one of the driest states in the country.
The trial will also monitor the quality of water passing through the pavement structure and evaluate its efficiency in reducing contamination of resulting waterways.
The pavement at St Marys Park used four tonnes of tyre-derived aggregates, the equivalent to diverting 500 passenger tyres from the waste stream. It can be used in pedestrian walks, bike paths, car parks and low volume roads across Australia.
The permeable paving has been created by the University of Melbourne through funding from Tyre Stewardship Australia (TSA), an organisation established to ensure old tyres are recycled in an environmentally sustainable way. Other partners involved with the trial are Merlin Site Services, Pacific Urethanes and Global Synthetics.
Pavement Trial Highlights
A total of six different sections, consisting of 24 parking bays, were each paved using a unique mixture of tyre-derived aggregate and crushed rock mixed with varying range of binders with different section designs.
All sections were constructed in three layers, namely the compacted soil subgrade, the uniformly-graded gravel screening (reservoir layer) and the used tyre-based permeable pavement.
Cutting-edge instrumentation techniques have been implemented to monitor the system’s performance over time.
Innovative geosynthetic solutions were used in the system to explore the possibility of further mechanical enhancements.
Approximately four tonnes of Tyre Derived Aggregates, equivalent to 500 used passenger tyres, were utilised for the project.
The design allows for collection and storage of approximately 60 cubic meters of storm-water to be absorbed by the ground resulting in zero surface run-off in majority of rain-fall events.
