Fire Truck Hardstand

A well-maintained grassed area utilized by a school community for sport and recreation was selected as the most suitable location for a load bearing platform to support a fully loaded firetruck. This was for a designated area by the fire department for a parking/standing point used for fire response vehicles to perform routine checks and to provide access in the case of a fire. 

Consideration was given to place a concrete pad (which would support the load of a full fire truck which is approximately 32 tonne) however, the schools preference was for an option that would be accepted by the fire department while still being able to maintain the grassed play areas. 

The school approached Geofabrics to investigate more affordable and aesthetically pleasing design alternatives. A design suggestion using a 150 mm deep Geoweb geocell cellular confinement system was provided by Presto and presented to the client. The certified design was approved by the fire brigade as meeting the load bearing capacity for the fire trucks. 

Geofabrics provided onsite support to the school grounds crew during installation. Atra keys were used to join the Geoweb panels and atra clips and anchors to hold the panels in place prior to being filled. bidim geotextile was placed under the Geoweb as a filtration and separation layer. 

The final solution has met all requirements of the school and local fire brigade, including being more affordable. The area can now withstand the capacity of a fully loaded fire truck while having no changes to the visual or functional aspects of the grass play area. 

Recently after the project was completed, other schools have since installed a similar hard stand area using the Geoweb system. 

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Fire Truck Hardstand