ACO Water Management provided their ACO StormBrixx for an unsual application at Rushden Lakes retail development.

ACO Water Management has provided expertise and support for many Sustainable Drainage systems (SuDS), with ACO StormBrixx geocellular attenuation and infiltration crates regularly used as a vital part of the sustainable water cycle

However, in the Rushden Lakes project UBU, the landscape architects for the project, identified a different use.

ACO StormBrixx HD geocellular crates provided a tree pit solution to order to integrate the surrounding environmental wetlands into a retail development design.

A key element of the design sees 13 types of tree, as well various other plants, sensitively incorporated into the retail park design. Trees are positioned throughout the car park and the central boulevard.

ACO StormBrixx has good vertical load and horizontal load strength. The vertical load strength is integral to the Rushden Lakes car park, where the supporting tree pits jut out and are subject to site traffic.

In all areas, the strength of the structure prevents soil compaction and allows largely unrestricted root growth through the open geocellular structure which as a void ratio of 95%.

By filling the StormBrixx tank void with clean and fertile soil, and then wrapping the whole installation in a geotextile material, the landscape architects were able to keep all the soil in place and free from contamination to promote healthy root growth.

Thanks to its easy snap-lock construction various tree pit configurations were able to be installed at Rushden Lakes using the ACO StormBrixx system. These included a cross design in a car park node where one instalment of StormBrixx protected four trees in one construction, as well as a half-lap concentric ring pattern around some trees, aided by the system’s brick-bonding for extra stability.

Additional car parking will be included as part of Phase 2, and ACO StormBrixx will continue to be used to accommodate further tree pits throughout the site. ACO’s wider water management expertise will also be called upon, with ACO’s high-capacity Qmax slot drainage system due to be installed throughout the site’s new car park.

ACO KerbDrain – a combined kerb drainage system – will also be installed along a new access road, which will link Phase 2 to the wider Rushden Lakes development.