New Trail Designed to Promote Physical Activity

Missouri park officials selected recycled rubber permeable surfacing to create a resilient and safe surface and accommodate year-round use

The Branson, Missouri Parks & Recreation Department installed an eco-friendly walking trail that was specifically designed to create a filter for rainwater that flows into Lake Taneycomo.

The trail is 10,000 square feet and built from “Porous Pave XL”, a permeable surface that uses crumb rubber from end-of-life (ELTs) tires. About 3,000 end-of-life tires were used to build the path. The trail will filter rainwater below the path’s surface that flows into Lake Taneycomo while keeping the surface of the trail dry.

Made from recycled tire rubber, stone aggregate and a proprietary binding agent – Porous Pave is an eco-friendly surfacing material with incredible durability. The 50/50 blend of crumb rubber and stone allows for flexibility from the rubber and durability from the stone chips and hard binder.  It is utilized in high traffic areas that require a hard-wearing paving material that has high traction and superior permeability while still looking natural and beautiful.  The unique design of the material allows the entire surface area to be porous allowing an amazing 5,800 gallons of water per hour to pass through each square foot of surface area.

“This innovative project is a wonderful addition to the features at Eiserman Park, which include fishing ponds, a disc golf course and pickleball courts,” Branson Parks & Recreation Director Cindy Shook said in a statement. “We are always looking for ways to improve the quality of life for our community in an environmentally responsible way. We are grateful for our community partners who helped us fund this project and had the same eco-friendly benefit for the community in mind.”

The walking trail is part of the Taneycomo Management Planning and Demonstration project. The project is funded through a partnership of Missouri State University, the Department of Natural Resources, White River Valley Electric, and the parks department. The parks department provided matching labor costs, and was trained by Porous Pave, Inc. to build the eco-friendly trail.

“What a pleasure it was to work with a visionary like Cindy Shook and her amazing crew led by Jim Cartright” said Matt Lamb, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Porous Pave.

With training from Porous Pave, The Branson Parks and Recreation Department easily embraced installing Porous Pave and have since followed up several projects on their own utilizing Porous Pave XL at a city dog park and to remedy a camp site drainage issues for a city campground.

© Scrap Tire News, April 2023