The London Borough of Southwark is an incredibly busy area within Inner London, boasting some of the city’s greatest landmarks and tourist attractions such as Tower Bridge, London Bridge, The Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, to name a few.
Inevitably, the area experiences heavy vehicular traffic as well as a high number of pedestrians on a daily basis. In recent years, Southwark Council encountered issues with pavement shifting due to the heavy usage and the traditional 200x100mm paving products previously installed. These products did not possess optimum interlocking capabilities, so with regular rainfall, the sub-base became saturated.
Over time some of the sand in the sub-base was then forced up through the joints, causing the paving system to fail. For this reason, the paving installed on streets within the area had to be renewed frequently.
However, thanks to the innovative design and strong interlocking capabilities of Tobermore’s City Pave VS5 block paving, pavement shifting is now a thing of the past for Southwark Council. With consulting engineer, Aecom, and FM Conway installing the paving products on this project, the streets within the borough, including Derwent Grove, Elsie Road, East Dulwich, Matham Grove, Blanchedowne Road, Hillsboro Road and Melbourne Grove, have been refurbished with City Pave VS5 in sparkling Silver, Mid Grey and Graphite.
City Pave VS5 is the ultimate in pavement stability and is ideal for expansive schemes with heavy trafficking. This inspirational product from Tobermore incorporates shift protection on five sides of each block including the special profile on the bottom surface which produces a clawing effect in the pavement bed. This ensures continuous protection against pavement shifting from both horizontal and vertical loads.
The larger element 300x150x100mm size of the City Pave VS5 block also creates a ‘traffic-calming’ effect which is very important in tourist areas, such as the London Borough of Southwark.
As well as the intense structural benefits, City Pave VS5 encompasses a hard wearing surface layer which improves the strength, durability, colour retention and overall appearance of the product. The fabulous colour options available additionally offer a stylish, contemporary hard landscaping solution, suitable for any type of commercial project.