Building A Sustainable Infrastructure With Recycled Materials

With the rise of urban centers across the country, stormwater drainage continues to challenge public works departments, city planners and project developers

In heavy and severe storm events the Eleta Street entertainment district in Tampa, Florida consistently floods due to the lack of drainage capabilities at the curb side of the street. The bustling urban entertainment district hosts many restaurants, bars and shops that lose business when flooding blocks the street and keeps customers away. Despite the need for drainage these businesses were reluctant to have the city close the street and and dig up the pavement to install a new stormwater sewer causing a lengthy shutdown of the road which would affect daily trade in Tampa’s Entertainment District.

In researching solutions, officials in the city’s stormwater department learned of a new drainage system that didn’t require deep excavation. They contacted KB Industries in nearby Clearwater, Florida about its FlexiDrain® system that allows large volumes of water to pass through using a ‘shallow excavated trench’ eliminating the need for a storm water pipe or trench drain that normally require deep excavation..

KBI Flexi®- Drain is an excavated trench one foot – two feet deep and one foot – two feet wide filled with clean 1.5-inch stone capped with KBI Flexi®- Pave surface. KBI Flexi-Pave combines recycled tire-derived crumb rubber with rock aggregate in a monolithic surface.. This system allows storm water to enter the KBI Flexi®- Drain with up to 3000 plus gallons per square foot per hour, providing a water storage vault and allowing large volumes of storm water to be directed to the main storm water sewer system.

In addition to the remarkable water absorption rates the KBI Flexi®- Drain filters storm water passively through a ‘bio- film’ that naturally grows in the ‘dynamic pore-space’ of the KBI Flexi®- Pave that is installed onto the stone trench.

This two-layer system allows for removal of up to 86 percent of dissolved nitrates and ortho-phosphorus., Kevin Bagnall President and CEO of KBI’s parent company, Atlantic Wind & Solar said.

“At KBI we’re leading the way to building sustainable next-gen infrastructures with urbanized stormwater projects using smarter materials, environmentally beneficial materials,” Bagnall said.

Trail Improvements Maintain Infrastructure

KB Industries recently completed maintenance and upgrades on 50,000 sq ft. of popular and heavily used exercise trails at the Shotgun Road Linear Park in Sunrise, FL. KB installed the pathway in 2016 using its patented Flexi®-Pave surface that uses tire crumb rubber and rock aggregate.

The city originally selected Flexi-Pave for the pathway because it needed a sustainable, durable surface on the trail that would withstand heavy use but was permeable and resilient providing a safer walking and running surface for all ages. The recent upgrades added more useable surface area and refreshed the surface in other areas.

“An increasing number of municipalities and counties are recognizing the health benefit of installing Flexi-Pave pathways, walking trails, and running tracks,” Bagnall said. He cited a report from the RISE Research Institutes of Sweden that said “people are less likely to be injured if they fall on this surface and would likely do more healthy activities like walking and cycling if they no longer have to worry about the risk of a fall.”

The Sunrise trail project is one of several projects KB Industries recently completed with Flexi-Pave. The others are Broadway Path, Cambridge, MA, Norris Dam State Park, Norris, TN and Glady’s Porter Zoo, Brownsville, TX.

© Scrap Tire News, June 2020