Project Arborist Shows How to Get Big Machines Past Vancouver Street Tree Without Compacting Roots
Finding parking on a busy Vancouver street can be challenging.
But it's not nearly as tricky as getting a an excavator and a dump truck past a boulevard tree without impacting the critical roots. That was the challenge we faced last week when we had to backfill the foundation on this narrow sloped site. The material and the machines had to enter from the front. And the only way to get there was over the critical root zone of a big old Maple.
Tree barriers were in place which was good. The contractor was aware that any work inside the barrier was to be done with arborist on site.
We needed a bridge over the Critical Root Zone.
A sheet of poly plastic was placed first. This was so that clean up at the end would be easy.
Then a bunch of 2x4's were thrown down parallel with the run of the roots.
On top of that went a generous pile of loose aggregate.
The excavator crawled over the root zone bridge no problem at all. The dump truck was next.
Some 3/4" plywood was added to help distrubute the load from the heavy truck and trailer
Careful driving kept the truck on course.
And the job was done.
Afterwards the tree barriers were put back up. The impact that was left amounted to a few pebbles and a squished coffee cup.
That's how you get big machines over tree roots without causing harm.
As for finding a place to park...
good luck pal
