A safety surface usually associated with playgrounds is being used on a busy Weymouth route to protect the health of mature trees.
Repair work is underway to smooth out sections of pavement along Dorchester Road between Lidl and The Hotel Rembrandt, where damage has been caused by tree roots.
Dorset Highways put together the proactive package of work to save money on the increasing need for reactive repairs along the heavily used pavement and improve accessibility along the path.
Council arboriculture officers have been working closely with highways to ensure the continued health of the trees, which are around 60 years old.
Trenching around the base of the trees is being enlarged to provide extra space and ‘JungleMulch’ is being used to surface these areas.
In a trial for Dorset Council, the material will provide a flexible, porous surface – allowing the tree more room to grow, without disrupting the pavement surface, and supporting the health of the tree.
‘JungleMulch’ is made from recycled vehicle tyres which is bound with a resin to form a solid surface but looks like loose mulch.
Jack Wiltshire, Dorset Council Head of Highways, said: “This is a very heavily used walking route to shops, schools and to the beach, and this maintenance will improve accessibility for many people, especially wheelchair users, people with pushchairs, children on scooters and for anybody walking.
“Using the council’s in-house arboriculture team’s expertise, we’ve also been able to provide better conditions for these more mature trees to thrive using a material which should also reduce maintenance in the area.
“Carrying out the work as a co-ordinated project will also save money and reduce our environmental impact in the long run, compared to carrying out the frequent ad-hoc reactive repairs we were experiencing.
Repairs started on Monday 21 June near Lidl on the southbound side of the road. The team has progressed towards Westerhall and are working their way back towards the Spa area on the opposite side of the road.
The £45,000 maintenance scheme of proactive work was put into action after ‘defects’ in the pavement were routinely recorded during highway inspections.
I wondered (apprehensively) what was happening to our trees. Great to find that it is aimed at enhancing the lives of our London Planes.
Let us hope it also reduces the significant trip opportunities around the trees.
Perhaps the same system could be used on other uneven pavements around Weymouth?
Brilliant solution, but can our tyres locally be recycled anywhere in the southwest or do we still have to pay to have them taken away?
some better environmental news as long as the rubber mulch does not impact on the trees rooting system where can we drop off old tyres
This is a fantastic idea,to protect our lovely trees,at the time as preventing accidents to pedestrians.
Perhaps you could look at the Silver Birch tree outside Clark’s shoe shop,St Thomas Street. The times I have nearly tripped outside this shop. Please can you assess this before there’s a serious accident.
We don’t want to lose the lovely tree,bu5 the conditions of the paving must be against health and safety laws. This is very urgent
and has been for a number of years. Thank you Mary Parfitt
Excellent work to help protect these much-valued trees and keep pavements safe too, thank you very much to everyone involved. As climate change takes hold we need more trees in urban areas so this is a great example to set.