The City and County of Denver needed to make improvements to the existing 38th & Holly Detention Pond. During small and larger storm events, water was collecting in Holly Street at depths up to approximately 1.5 feet. The water would then overflow the pond embankment along Holly Street to enter the pond and caused severe erosion to the embankment, meanwhile creating on-going maintenance concerns and repairs.
In order to mitigate the issues, prevent future erosion and provide storm water management, the City and County of Denver moved forward with plans to significantly re-landscape the detention pond along with planting trees for pedestrian shade.
The Art of Concrete, was hired to tackle the innovative decorative concrete design by the Landscape Architects, Stream Design, for the gabion drop structure at 38th & Holly. Instead of utilizing shotcrete or grouted boulders, Stream Design utilized architectural concrete finishes to create this storm water improvement at 38th & Holly Detention Pond in Denver, CO.
The Art of Concrete met with Stream Design early on to discuss some of the ideas to create more beautiful and functional drop structures to help not only enhance the storm water design and erosion control, but also to bring extra value to the neighborhood. Collectively they came up with concrete finishes that tie together nicely in a tiered design and encourage the flow of storm water. With a combination of Grasscrete, stamped concrete, exposed aggregate and stained concrete, The Art of Concrete installed the new decorative concrete drop structure.
By utilizing Grasscrete, the project incorporated a pervious concrete element to the paving. Grasscrete is a continuously reinforced monolithically cast-in-place concrete solution that allows water to flow through and plants to grow within the pavement. The Grasscrete was filled with a variety of different plants to blend with the adjacent planted areas syncing together the beauty of concrete and landscaping. By creating voids within a monolithic, continuously reinforced, cast-in-place concrete slab, plants have the opportunity to thrive within concrete. These voids also allow water to penetrate the slab, providing a sustainable yet durable solution for pervious pavement and storm water management. The partially grassed system is robust enough to withstand the Colorado winters and additional water flow while creating that feel good factor of greenspace.
The project now safely directs storm water into the detention pond while improving the water quality and aesthetics for the surrounding neighborhood. By incorporating different concrete finishes but utilizing uncolored concrete as the base of all of the paving, The Art of Concrete was able to provide cost-effective, yet decorative concrete to this City and County of Denver Public Works project.
