Stormwater June 2012 : Page 30
PCC Rock Creek Recreation Facility The Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District (THPRD), just west of Portland, OR, needed a new facility to serve its current and future residents. The area is mostly suburban, but there’s a signifi cant amount of rural land, and offi cials are expecting more development in the next 10 to 20 years. They had the funds to build the facility, but not the land. The adjacent Portland Community College needed sports facilities and recreational areas to enhance the curriculum at its Rock Creek campus. The col-lege had the land, but not the funds. The two combined resources, and today they share the 32-acre PCC Rock Creek Recreation Facil-ity, which includes sports fi elds, tennis courts, and a trail for walking and jogging. The college uses the facility during the day on weekdays, and the rec-reation department uses it in the evenings and on weekends. The asphalt for the driveway One of the goals of the project was to use as many and the concrete for the curbs spaces themselves, Kerr excavated between 15 inches and 2 feet, depend-sustainable techniques as possible. This included in-are poured before the pavers ing on the project’s specifi cations, and stalling permeable pavers in all 286 parking spaces are laid, to provide solid borders for the pavers. then graded and compacted the area. in the facility’s parking lot. The design called for the Crews placed a fi lter fabric on the excavated soil; poured SF-Rima permeable paving stone system, which is licensed to SF Concrete Technology Inc. in Mississauga, ON, by the layers of half-inch clean, dust-free stones; and compacted developer of the system, SF-Kooperation GmbH in Germany. each layer until the stones were up to grade. To level out the “They were brought to us by the facility’s designer, Mark top layer of stones and provide a smooth bed for the pavers, Hadley,” says Gery Keck, THPRD’s senior park planner, they laid a screed layer of clean quarter-inch stone on top. The 10-by 10-inch concrete pavers, manufactured by Wil-who was involved in the project from inception to comple-tion. “He saw them when he visited Europe. They seemed to lamette Graystone in Oregon, will last longer than asphalt, Keck says. The open space between them is approximately 9 meet a lot of our goals.” Hadley, a landscape architect with W&H Pacifi c Inc. in to 10%, the optimum amount to infi ltrate runoff, according to Portland, was the design team project manager on the job. SF Concrete Technology. The pavers must be very consistent The pavers cover a total of 47,000 square feet, slightly more in size when they’re mechanically laid down, and if curbs or other design elements are even a little bit off, they have to be than an acre. The rest of the parking lot is asphalt. The project won a design award from the Oregon Recre-removed and rebuilt before the pavers can be installed. Modular Paving Systems Inc. of Tigard, OR, laid down ation and Parks Association in 2007, in large part because of the sustainable techniques that were used. These include the pavers with a Probst PaverMAX VM 204 paver-laying synthetic turf, state-of-the-art irrigation and lighting systems, machine from Germany. The machine set the pavers into the recycled plastic outdoor furniture, and bioswales in addition parking spaces fl ush with the curb on three sides—approxi-to the pavers. “It was an honor to get that award,” says Keck. mately 5,000 square feet of pavers a day. “The pavers come on pallets,” says Keck. “The machine One challenge in making the facility a reality was getting THPRD, the college, a 12-member task force, multiple dis-picks up the top layer, puts it down, and sweeps screed into tricts and jurisdictions, and other concerned parties to agree the joints.” This screed is also a quarter-inch in size. Maintenance is simple. Workers blow off grass clippings, to a master plan and design, Keck says. Discussions about building a facility began in early 2000. Construction began pick the few weeds that come up, and vacuum any silt that 30 June 2012 www.stormh2o.com THPRD retaining walls can be used for seating. The plaza was built during the summer of 2010 and was completed in August, before the students returned from summer vacation. Fowler stayed onsite at least three days a week to make fi eld adjustments, and the campus had to be closed while the general contractor, A.D. Davis, relocated some walkways to lead visitors to the plaza. “I couldn’t be happier with this project,” she says. “When I’m on campus for meetings, I love to see people congregating there. When the students tell me it’s great, I ask them: ‘Do you know there’s a drainage system under here?’” in 2006 and was completed in 2007. “You need to keep an open dialog,” he says. “Most user groups got a piece of what they wanted.” The area is hilly, with creeks and streams running through it. Because the facility is on a downhill slope, the biggest challenge in the construction of the parking lot was creating a level surface. Kerr Construction in Woodburn, OR, poured the asphalt for the driveway and the concrete for the curbs, which have cuts to allow runoff to fl ow from the parking spaces into bioswales in the parking lot. For the parking
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