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CORE case study · North Road corridor, Cardiff

No-dig cycleway beside mature trees in Cardiff

More than 8,500 m² of 100 mm CORE TRP formed a no-dig, load-spreading base beneath porous macadam on a tree-sensitive cycle route.

Client
Cardiff Council
Sector
Active travel
Location
North Road corridor, Cardiff
CORE components
CORE TRP Panels · 100 mm project depth
Completed North Road cycleway beside the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.
CORE project · North Road corridor, Cardiff
018,500+ m²

CORE TRP installed

02100 mm

TRP panel depth

03Porous macadam

Wearing course

04No dig

Root-zone formation

Project context

A landscape shaped by its purpose.

Cardiff Council upgraded the route from the Excelsior Road area towards the city centre. Mature trees close to the alignment meant the formation needed to be strengthened without conventional excavation.

Horan Construction installed more than 8,500 m² of 100 mm CORE TRP beneath the porous macadam route.

The brief

What the project had to achieve.

Upgrade a well-used cycle and pedestrian route close to mature trees without conventional excavation or damaging compaction within the root zones.

  1. 01

    No-dig formation

    The route needed to be built above existing ground through Root Protection Areas.

  2. 02

    Frequent active travel

    The finished surface had to support regular cyclists and pedestrians.

  3. 03

    Porous construction

    Water and oxygen movement through the root-zone construction had to remain possible.

  4. 04

    Durable surface

    A smooth, maintainable wearing course was needed over the cellular layer.

Illustrative CORE TRP installation context with cellular panels beside retained trees.
Illustrative installation context · project-specific layer dimensions are not shown
The CORE solution

Selected around the site—not just the surface.

CORE specified a 100 mm CORE TRP build-up. Panels were installed above the existing ground, filled with free-draining aggregate and surfaced with porous macadam.

CORE TRP Panels at a 100 mm project depth were expanded and connected along the corridor as the cellular load-distribution layer.

TRP 10 and TRP 30 membranes, together with CORE Biaxial Geogrid, supported the project-specific construction.

The cells were filled with 4–20 mm clean limestone before the porous macadam wearing course was laid, creating a stable route while maintaining drainage through the build-up.

Products & quantities

Products used.

CORE TRP 10 and TRP 30 membranes

CORE Biaxial Geogrid

20 kN
Installation

How the system was installed.

  1. 01

    Existing ground retained through the tree-sensitive corridor

  2. 02

    CORE TRP 10, TRP 30 and CORE Biaxial Geogrid

  3. 03

    100 mm CORE TRP panels

  4. 04

    4–20 mm clean limestone infill

  5. 05

    Porous macadam wearing course

The result

More than 8,500 m² of smooth, porous cycleway now passes through the tree-sensitive corridor on a no-dig CORE TRP base.

Project outcomes

  • Large no-dig route through a mature-tree corridor
  • Smooth cycle and pedestrian surface
  • Free-draining aggregate and porous wearing course
  • Load distribution above existing soil
Project team

The people behind the project.

Client
Cardiff Council
Contractor
Horan Construction
System support
CORE
Project gallery

Progress and completed work.

Completed North Road cycleway beside the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.
North Road cycleway at the RWCMD sectionBibeyjj / Wikimedia CommonsCC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP by CORE Civil Systemscompleted
Completed North Road cycleway beside the ambulance-station access in Cardiff.
North Road cycleway at the ambulance-station sectionBibeyjj / Wikimedia CommonsCC BY-SA 4.0 · Resized and converted to WebP by CORE Civil Systemscompleted
Technical downloads

Project and product documents.

Sources

Project sources.

  1. Cardiff North Road CORE TRP case studyCORE
  2. Horan Construction projectsHoran Construction
  3. North Road Cycleway — RWCMD photographWikimedia CommonsBibeyjj, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and converted to WebP.
  4. North Road Cycleway — Ambulance Station photographWikimedia CommonsBibeyjj, CC BY-SA 4.0; resized and converted to WebP.
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