Architect: Ranbir Lal
Sector: Recreational
Client: Shrewsbury County Council
Contractor: Bardon Contracting

At over 12 metres high and it is 17.5 metres long, Quantum Leap is a majestic sculpture set in the picturesque Mardol Quay Gardens on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury centre. The sculpture and garden improvements were commissioned by the town council to mark the bicentenary of Charles Darwin. In keeping with this prestigious development Bardon were consulted to provide a permeable asphalt paving that could meet the functional characteristics of a free draining footpath and compliment the aesthetic of the development without detracting from it.

Aggregate Industries’s product development team’s solution was to use existing permeable asphalt design principles and take the evolutionary step to combine this with a translucent plant based bio-binder. The product was trialled at and supplied from our Haughmond Hill Asphalt plant near to Shrewsbury and is branded as Bardon BioSynergy. The client was very pleased with the resultant material, water was able to permeate through it making it free draining and its colour perfectly complimented the development.

The BioSynergy footpath now completes the footpaths and paved area around the Quantum Leap structure and incorporates a Geological Clock path. Set within the path are rocks from the twelve geological periods to form a Geological Clock. Five of the rock samples were supplied from Aggregate Industries’ quarries and collected by geologist Sam Rhodes.