Another item from the last Committee meeting was road surface improvements for the West part of the ring road in the allotment. At the moment the roads or parts of them are reviewed and renewed every four or five years. The road is raised and been worked on over the years. The East road was improved with the use of chippings which created better drainage. Mud and grass cover the top of the road, which becomes slippery underfoot when churned up after rain. There is a small parking area next to each of the manure and wood chip bays. Walking and cycling is encouraged, but there are times when a plot holder comes straight from work in a van or needs to bring heavier items to the site so vehicular access is required.
Planned Road Surface Improvements
So after waiting for the green light from Covid restrictions to enable contractors and committee members to be on site together, it is time to scrape the top off of the old road. Once this happens the gravel chippings can be put down, and then rolled to give a flat surface. Extra attention at the corner where the wood chip truck and manure tractor and trailer delivers.
Weather Resilient
How else could we do road surface improvements to stop it being a regularly repeated exercise and cost? A bespoke grasscrete or rubber grass paver surface would be good for the environment as it stills lets the rain drain into the ground, and also has the weight bearing capacity needed. It would also stop it becoming slippery with mud after the rains – up to 3.66 inches of rain in October.
Recycled Plastic Grass Paver Surface
A basic x-grid product would take 420 tonnes per square metre of load capacity. Weaste would not need it to be heavy duty as the wood chip and manure tractor with trailer are the heaviest vehicles that enter the site. Plot holders may bring their cars and vans on site, but many do not. Created in Yorkshire so we would be able to buy British and recycling plastics that have been used.
The cost is about £24 per square metre of grid. Each side road is about 400 square metres, so that would be just under £10,000 to put in one side. Installation would take about 4 hours. So to do all of the road around the plots would be about £30,000 and 12 hours to lay. Of course there would also be preparation and seeding too and a local contractor would be found to do this. A project with contingency of about £45,000. This is a huge amount to find and spend in one go for a not-for-profit so can only be done with donations and grant funding. However it would then probably will not need doing for at least another 25 years!
Accessibility Road Surface
It would certainly help us to make the allotments more accessible all year to plot holders. The West road often has to be closed off for all vehicles a couple of months of the year currently due to the high rainfall. If you’d like to donate towards road maintenance we would love to hear from you.