Maroondah City Council, Dromsally Reserve
Project Name: Dromsally Reserve
Client: Maroondah City Council
The project involved works at Dromsally Reserve Warranwood, an overgrown and difficult to access piece of council land. Bordered by a residential court and the Warranwood Rudolf Steiner School, the site was commonly used as a thoroughfare for students and residents until it became overgrown with weeds. Further, silt loads from the unabated erosion of the creek line had a detrimental impact on the downstream waterway. The services required of WES included:
- Vegetation removal
- Desilting
- Construction of rock lined channel
- Installation of concrete drainage infrastructure
- Construction of footpaths and
- An elevated steel and timber boardwalk
- Implementation of landscape management plan.
APPROACH TAKEN TO DELIVERY OF THE PROJECT
WES faced challenges throughout the project in regards to design (consistent with Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) principles and functionality. We carefully balanced the differing requirements of stakeholders within council departments (e.g. engineering vs. environmental group) to ensure a satisfied outcome overall. For example between native vegetation preservation and clearing areas to make way for infrastructure (e.g. footpath).
As the site was subject to a Vegetation Protection Overlay and Significant Vegetation Overlay meaning only minimal clearing of existing vegetation was permissible (i.e. limited working area for construction machinery and deliveries). This aspect coupled together with the site being bordered by a court and a school meant we had to critically manage the timing of deliveries and appropriate staging of works.
Critical to the success of the project was effective stakeholder management. Given the limited space on site, we used adjacent private properties at various times to access the site. The WES crew managed the relationship and built rapport with residents to enable the project to proceed without delay.
The safety of our crew and the general public, mostly school aged children who were used to using this site as a thoroughfare, were also key considerations. Working with the neighbouring property owners, we established a temporary route for the children to safeguard them from the worksite.
OUTCOMES & BENEFITS
The reserve is now a functioning, aesthetically pleasing and useable space for the community. The council was very happy with the result, as were the school community and neighbouring properties. There were some delays to the works program but given we were working on a functioning drainage asset in the middle of winter this was not unexpected. We were able to manage these delays so as not to adversely affect the overall project budget.
