Aardvark project
Surface Water
| Location: Tiverton, UK | Client: Private landowner |
| Date: February 2008 | Sector: Water and Environment |
Additional car parking was required at Tiverton Parkway as the existing car parking facilities were inadequate to meet the passengers parking requirements.
Aardvark EM Ltd was commissioned to undertake a detailed design of the car park. The site of the car park was within flood zone 3b, part of the functional floodplain. The land was raised to ensure the car park was not at risk of flooding and a flood compensation area had to be provided downstream so that the dynamics of the Spratford Stream were not affected.
Surface water drainage was dealt with in such a way that it did not increase the flood risk at the site. Porous paviours were used for the car park and porous tarmac was used for the roadway to allow drainage directly through the material. Below the surface lies a granular sub-base which acted as an attenuation storage area, a hydrobrake allowed for a controlled rate of discharge into the stream. This conformed with the use of SUDs now preferred under PPS 25.
The design also looked at the lighting within the car park to ensure that it did not affect the nearby Tiverton Link Road, the ecology of the site, and the pathway and bridge which were required to ensure that users of the car park had safe access to and from the railway station.