Wynnum Community Centre –...

Wynnum carpark2 1 Wynnum Community Centre Citygreen

Sustainable Carpark Solution Filtering Stormwater Run-off and Reduces Environmental Impact on Urban Waterways

Key Facts

LOCATION:
Wynnum Community Centre
105 Florence St, Wynnum, QLD, Australia

YEAR:
November 2020

CLIENT:
Brisbane City Council

CONSTRUCTION:
JMac Constructions – Brisbane

About the Project

The project’s first stage was to transform the existing main building into a thriving and well-resourced community centre. Before the upgrade, the main building was utilised by various community groups.  However, the off-street parking provided for these groups consisted of a temporary car park in old basketball courts.  To address this issue, Brisbane City Council developed grand plans for the site to serve the community more appropriately.  

Delivered and funded by Brisbane City Council on Turrbal/Yugara-Yugarapul/Jagera Country, the project has vastly improved vehicle and community movements along a busy corridor in the eastern suburb of Brisbane, in Queensland, Australia. Citygreen has been working towards completing the Wynnum Community Centre Project over the last couple of years, which has been a resounding success.

Project Goals

The first and second stage was to develop a shopping centre, which would offer the community access to Woolworths; this centre would also be home to a Council Library and other building spaces for smaller tenancies.  The third stage included creating a small leisure park between the Shopping Centre and the Community Centre. To accommodate the changes and serve the community with more parking opportunities, stage 4 included building a permanent car park for the Community Centre. 

To turn these plans into reality, Citygreen was called on to provide expertise on matters ranging from the design of stormwater drains, sprinkler systems, appropriate placement of sewer connections and the selected tree species.  

Project Challenges

Ed Crouch, Project Manager at Brisbane City Council, said: “One of the conditions for development approval was to install a drainage cell system. The shared conundrum amongst the project team was how the asphalt surface directly beneath a car parking bay would be supported over the Citygreen Stratavault drainage soil cell system.”

The Citygreen Designstudio team engaged its engineers to design and certify this design component, which was promoted as the solution to this problem. Citygreen Designstudio also provided designs for the sprinkler system and reviewed the tree species that would best thrive in the carpark environment.

Another major challenge was achieving the falls for the stormwater. The most accessible stormwater main was on the other side of the site (Florence Street), which meant installing a stormwater line from the proposed permanent carpark down the Community Centre driveway. Also, a condition of the subdivision was a sewer connection had to be made to the surplus block to be sold off.

“Citygreen worked well with Council’s structural and hydraulic consultants to suggest solutions to challenges. Citygreen called on in-house expertise to value-add to recommendations put forward by the project team. The relationship between all the parties was professional. All solutions to challenges encountered were based on a ‘best for project’ philosophy. ” – Ed Crouch, Project Manager at Brisbane City Council

Project Outcome

Landscape elements were prioritized for constructing the permanent car park, which was why Citygreen’s Stratavault™ was chosen for the design. Citygreen’s Stratavault™ is a highly engineered large soil cell installed easily under a car park to enable trees to accept, store and transmit water, nutrients, and energy while giving roots sufficient room to propagate.

The vault’s structural matrix, manufactured from recycled polymers, is designed to provide an optimal growth zone for tree roots where high compressive strength is required and needed to withstand heavy traffic loads. Unlike the usual hardscapes delivered in an urban infrastructure project, the design team developed a car park that was considered the ‘end user’. Citygreen’s Stratavault™ allowed mature Eleocarpus Eumundii specimens to be planted, increasing the visual and physical amenities for pedestrians and cyclists, motorists and the local community.

In addition to managing stormwater, the system is used to harvest roof water for irrigation. By capturing rainwater from rooftops and directing it into the Stratavaults, the system can provide a reliable water source for tree irrigation, reducing the need for city water and providing a sustainable and cost-effective solution.

Water harvesting from rooftops is becoming increasingly popular in urban areas, as it can help reduce the demand for city water supplies and provide a sustainable water source for landscape irrigation. The Citygreen Stratavault system is an ideal solution for rooftop water harvesting. It can capture and retain water while providing a stable growing environment for trees and filtering pollutants from stormwater runoff, improving the quality of the water entering the city’s waterways. By integrating a water harvesting system with the Stratavaults, urban areas can reduce their water consumption and improve the health and longevity of their urban forests.

Ed Crouch, Project Manager, Civic & Building at Brisbane City Council, detailed that the key benefit of using the Stratavault™ system

‘The growth rate of the trees and the water savings capacity and the fact that the technology allows for rapid root growth whilst confining the area of the growth so as not to cause damage to the car park’s asphalt surface’.

Today, the trees in the permanent car park show great signs of continued and sustained growth whilst helping filter pollutants from stormwater run-off. The team at Citygreen look forward to seeing how the trees thrive in years to come.

spacer Wynnum Community Centre Citygreen

“Great customer service, quick response times and a very in depth QA system with constant support.”

- Laura Wiesenekker, Project Engineer, Densford Civil -

“Citygreen is a very professional  business, and I found everything was great in terms of deliveries, product supply and information. It was all forthcoming and helped us to complete the project.”

- Keith Burns, Architect/Designer, Keith Burns Architect -

“Citygreen offered training and invaluable technical assistance during the works.”

- James Callan, Estimating Manager, Complex Co Pty Ltd -

“Our experience, in working with a Citygreen Design Studio was second to none. We found responses from the design studio to be very timely, and technically thorough. We went backwards and forwards a number of times, looking at different iterations of the design and, nothing was too much trouble to examine and explore different possibilities. I would highly recommend the Citygreen Design Studio to any future client considering using your services.”

- Sandra Smith, Principal Landscape Architect, City Of Monash -

“We are big on compliance on all projects, and the fact that their SmartCertify cloud platform covers all bases, and supports their 20 year warranties, is critical – especially that these pits are being installed under roadways and footpaths.”

- Johny Purkaystha, Civil Program Engineer, Central Coast Council -

"I reviewed all the previous projects that we have installed in the past couple years using your product and I can happily report back that we have 0% mortality in the soil cells, which is incredible!"

- Brendan Wilton, CEO, Trim Landscaping, Bedford, Canada -