Hello everyone
I had the Highways call me out for a Beech tree that had lifted a
pavement and demanded that the tree be removed. I could not agree to
that because it was an important feature of the street. The Highways
then stated that it would cost £33,000 to repair the pavement. Gulp!.
Needless to say it would be foregone conclusion that the costs of
retaining the tree far outweigh its visual amenity. The Highways said
that they would need to raise the kerb (of which there are only two
sizes available), raise the pavement and, get this, raise the highway
100m each way as well to meet the height of the raised pavement. To cut
a long story short, I wrote to them and pointed out that other pavements
in Town are in a lot worse state (which is true) and why have they not
sorted those out. Best of all, I made sure they knew that there would be
a lot of public 'interest' in the loss of the tree (or damaging its
roots and thus destroying the tree) and that they would have to deal
with any adverse public and political interest. Their written response
was a complete 'u' turn and the tree and the pavement have stayed the
same thus far.
The moral of this story is that Highway engineers are...well, engineers
and they cannot deal with dynamic living organisms. In fact, speaking to
one highway engineer about pavements and street trees, he said that he
would remove all street trees because they spoil the symmetry of the
street! I managed to persuade him, however, to lay tarmac instead of
flag stones (which upset the Conservation Area Officer) and not to shave
or perform root pruning operations - the contract was accordingly
somewhat more expensive.
Dan
Jon.Lambourne@xxxxxxxxxxx.gov.uk 20/12/04 17:53:40 >>>
Greetings all,
Some lucky (?) residents in Canterbury are fortunate enough to live in
a street blessed with an avenue of mature, unpollarded London Plane
trees planted in the footway...
Unfortunately, root growth near the base of some of these trees is
causing humps in the footway crossovers, such that cars are grounding as
residents access their garages. Raising the level of the footway and
crossovers above the roots is only going to make the problem worse, so
Highway Engineer's thoughts are turning to root pruning or shaving off
the top off the roots...
I recall a case study and photo in Biddle's book on subsidence where a
slice was taken from the base of a tree in contact with a wall - and
wondered if anyone had experience of doing something similar to roots,
or had any other (helpful) suggestions that will solve the access
problems and save the trees?
Hopefully,
Jon
Jon Lambourne
Arboricultural Officer
Canterbury City Council
01227 862487
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