Stunning Solar Powered Park & Ride Goes Green In More Ways Than One

Project: Stourton Park & Ride

Location: Leeds

Client: Leeds City Council

Landscape Architects:Mott Macdonald

Main Contractor: BAM Nuttall

Products Supplied: Soil improver, bark, rootbarrier, tree guards/stakes/canes/ties, irrigation and anchors

Background:

Green-tech is delighted to make a significant contribution to the UK’s first fully solar powered Park & Ride facility on the outskirts of Leeds in West Yorkshire. Designed by Mott Macdonald in partnership with main contractor BAM Nuttall, the brand new Stourton Park & Ride heralds in a new era of clean, green public transport.

Served by a fleet of fully electric buses that run into the city centre every ten minutes and forming part of the Leeds Public Transport Investment Programme, the Park & Ride will help towards a net-zero carbon economy for the city by lowering carbon emissions, improving air quality and reducing congestion.

A photovoltaic solar canopy covers a third of the site, which powers the terminal building, street lighting and vehicle charging points, and feeds excess electricity back into the local grid. The site provides 1,200 parking spaces along with 26 fast electric vehicle charging ports and 4 rapid chargers.

Care was taken to reduce the visual impact of the site from all directions, and over 11,000 trees have been planted in and around the park & ride site with an impressive 54:1 replacement ratio. The main central area includes raised Corten steel planters, shrubs, hedges, specimen and evergreen trees to provide year-round coverage, creating a soft, open and welcoming environment.

Green-tech involvement:

Green-tech has a good working relationship with both Mott MacDonald and BAM Nuttall, and supplied all the stakes and crossbars, canes, tree belting and blocks to support the trees in the central area. All Green-tech square-sawn softwood and machine round stakes are FSC Certified and available from stock.

To protect the new perimeter planting from browsing animals and the elements Green-tech supplied 6,000 re-cyclable tree and shrub shelters, 450 square meters of 100% re-cycled jute Ecomatt mulch matting, as well as 275,000 litres of ornamental bark for the planters and beds. The Ecomatt allows air and water to pass through the layers whilst suppressing weed growth and acting as valuable insulation around the root area.

To ensure the best chance of successful establishment, Green-tech also supplied 200,000 litres of soil improver to help optimise the structure and fertility of the soil, as well as over 300 sets of irrigation pipes with Aria inlets and Mona reservoir tanks. On the more exposed trees, Green-tech DropMan anchors were used, holding the tree stable without the risk of soil contamination from sleepers or kerb stones.

Finally, 1,000 square meters of impermeable gtRootBarrier®325 was used where there was a need to deter roots from spreading too far.