Client
Paultons Park

Contractor
EJ Lazenby

Location type
Theme Park

Completion
February

The challenge
As part of a £12 million project to extend this theme park near Romsey, a new Valgard Viking Realm would be created with the parks first inverted roller coaster. External surfacing was needed that would complement and enhance the design of the theme park and provide a safe, all-weather access for visitors to the site. It would need to be durable enough to cope with the park’s one million annual visitors and the service vehicles that regularly used the site. It would also need to be low maintenance and easy to keep clean since, once opened, the park would be in constant use throughout the year.

Tarmac's Solution
Tarmac was approached to recommend potential options. Conventional black asphalt and grey concrete surfacing had already been ruled out as being too modern and utilitarian to fit with the design theme. After discussions, TOPTINT, Tarmac’s high-quality pigmented concrete was chosen. TOPTINT concretes are available in a range of colours and finishes. They use UV stable pigments that are evenly distributed throughout the mix to help resist long-term exposure to sunlight and resist surface wear, even in busy locations. The chosen colour and finish was TOPTINT Exposed concrete in a ‘Clay’ colour, with an exposed ‘Golden Gravel’ aggregate for a decorative, textured finish.

Results and benefits
As planned, 113m3 of TOPTINT was supplied over three pours in mid-late February 2026 from Tarmac’s Southampton Concrete Plant. Throughout the project there was close collaboration between Tarmac’s technical team and the main contractor EJ Lazenby to ensure that the concrete supplied met the required specification and performed as expected. The contractor and their client were delighted with the finish achieved. TOPTINT proved to be an ideal choice for this site. It combined natural colour tones that suited the historic theme of the park with a textured surface that would offer safe, accessible all-season use by visitors. It also offered lasting durability and the low maintenance finish needed by the client.

Read the full case study here.