Collaborating and creating customised drainage channels

Stoke City Regeneration is a multi-million pound project transforming the public realm in the city centre of Stoke-on-Trent. The third phase began in autumn 2014 and included work to Piccadilly, Broad Street and Warner Street.

Improvements include the installation of high-quality paving, seating and lighting and the creation of a pedestrian link between the main shopping area and the new Smithfield development.

In order to make the paving as accessible as possible the idea was raised of installing drainage channels with a smooth finish, rather than a grille, to reduce potential trip hazards.

Contracted to install drainage channels for the third phase, ACO Building Drainage contacted us in June 2014 to explore the potential of producing a bespoke channel drainage system; an ACO drainage channel infilled with SureSet.

An ACO drainage channel with top layer of SureSet permeable resin bound paving delivers a smooth, discrete, permeable, accessible drainage system that requires minimal maintenance.

For the next 12 months we worked with ACO on extensive trials to develop and test the bespoke drainage channel.

Combining both of our in-house expertise, and following technical trials the inaugural joint SureSet/ACO installation took place in July 2015; 3 linear meters of bespoke drainage channels infilled with 40mm of permeable paving in Midnight were installed in Stoke City Centre.

The benefits of these bespoke drainage channels are that they are:

• Discrete - the colour allows them to blend into the surrounding surface.
• Accessible – the smooth finish reduces the potential to trip.
• Tidy - there is nowhere for litter, leaves and other debris to become trapped.
• Low maintenance – because there aren’t any grilles for rubbish to fall through, the channels do not become blocked and require less cleaning.