Client: Normark Landscapes
Landscape Architect: Formium
Builder: Kane Construction
Location: VSBA Merrifield West Secondary School
Service: Soil recycling
Normark Landscapes gave us a buzz and asked us to ameliorate site won topsoil into a usable material for the large open space grass areas and garden beds throughout the school. There was a large stockpile of topsoil around 3,750m3. This material once loose produced 5,950m3.
The starting material was full of anything and everything that's green such as grass and shrubs.
As this was a school, we had a strict specification to achieve – the soil is going to be trampled by kids everyday. We engaged a local soil agronomist to discuss the best method of screening and ameliorating, who completed numerous tests to check that the soil was fit for its purpose.
Tests completed were soil chemistry, hydraulic conductivity and toxicity.
We communicated between Formium, Kane Construction and Normark Landscapes and came up with a solution that we were able to reuse the topsoil in this school application.
We produced a screened topsoil blend that meets the requirements of general garden beds and passive amenity lawn areas.
The physical and chemical characteristics that are not suitable were improved with some amendments and brought up to a fit for purpose standard, ideal for the school grounds.
Not only did we save the project from creating greenhouse gasses as a result of truck movements, we also put a few dollars in the back pocket of our clients to spend on other amenities.
We reduced 30.79 tonnes of CO2 emissions by saving 5,950m3 of soil from landfill. We have also planted 135 trees on Normark Landscapes behalf in native forests through our carbon offset commitment with partner Greenfleet.
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