Reducing Stormwater Runoff through Hamilton’s Depave Paradise Project

Back in June 2021, we had the exciting opportunity of participating in the Depave Paradise Program held by Green Venture in Hamilton, Ontario. Check out Green Venture’s ‘Depaving Differently’ to learn more about the spring 2021 program. Depave Paradise already had depaved 10 sites in Hamilton and were looking to install more on Barton Street East in partnership with the Barton Village BIA. When we were given the chance to participate, we excitedly agreed to partake as well as donating all materials for this initiative.

Stormflow Surfacing was a perfect product for this program as its unique design allows the entire surface to be porous, allowing for 5,800 gallons of water per hour to pass through each square foot of surface area. This reduces the amount of stormwater runoff, as rain doesn’t simply go directly into stormwater drains as it would with typical hard surfaces like asphalt and concrete.  What makes Stormflow Surfacing a sustainable & eco-friendly alternative to other pavements is that it’s made from recycled tires! In fact, every 1,000 square feet of 2” Stormflow Surfacing saves about 300 tires from the landfill.

On June 5, 2021, our team got to work installing 412 square feet  worth of Stormflow Surfacing at 579 Barton Street East on a commercial loading dock area. After the previous asphalt surface was removed by another contractor and 4” of crushed stone was added to the base, our crew applied 2” of cypress and black Stormflow Surface on top. The Depave team went for the cypress and black mix as it beautifully complimented the surrounding architecture and landscaping.

Alongside Stormflow Surfacing, numerous other landscape architects took part in this wonderful initiative. The results of Depave Barton can be seen in this video uploaded by Barton Village BIA on Facebook.

Being a part of this project was exciting for our team. We love the goal of wanting to restore the natural water cycle, while creating pockets of green space in downtown Hamilton. We’re so happy to have had a successful installation in Hamilton, Ontario and look forward to future Depave projects.

About Depave Paradise

Depave Paradise is a project of Green Communities Canada and Green Venture that engages volunteers and neighbourhoods in Canadian communities to remove pavement (by hand!) and plant gardens filled with native species or install permeable surfaces in its place. Their goal is to remove hard surface pavement and replace it with green space, thus increasing the infiltration rate of rainwater, cooling our neighbourhoods, keeping our water clean by filtering polluted runoff, increasing natural habitat for birds, bees, and butterflies, and providing us and our children with greater connections to the natural world. Since 2012, Green Venture has depaved 1145 m² of Asphalt at 10 Sites, absorbing 1,244,000L of stormwater annually. To learn more about Depave Paradise, check out: https://greenventure.ca/depave-paradise/

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