Bellheim focuses on residential quality when building housing estates – right from the start
When a new residential area is developed in Germany, the road pavement often only consists of a loose gravel surface at first. The road is only finished once the building structures have been completed.
With this construction sequence, those responsible are trying to ensure that roadways and sidewalks are not deformed by heavy construction vehicles during the building construction phase. As a result, residents of new housing estates have to live with a lot of dirt and dust in the first few years. The municipality of Bellheim in the Southern Palatinate found a way to develop new housing estates without eternal gravel roads and offer residents a high quality of living right from the start.
The most recent new development area in the municipality of Germersheim, which has just under 9,000 inhabitants, is the “In den Dornen” housing estate. The third construction phase was developed here in spring 2021. The developer is Pfalzwerke. The entire construction area covers an area of around 82,000 square meters. The average size of the 80 building plots is around 430 square meters. Here, too, the responsible planners were faced with a problem: “The planners’ declared aim was to offer the residents of the new development a high quality of living right from the start,” says Andreas Mangold from the planning office PISKE GbR in Ludwigshafen, which was responsible for the planning of the new development. “In order to keep the nuisance caused to residents by dust and mud to a minimum, the road should already be paved when the first house is occupied. However, as the building construction work will not be completed by then and the area will be used by heavy construction vehicles, only a surface that can withstand these loads could be considered for the pavement. Asphalt was ruled out for most of the areas for design reasons. We were looking for a modern concrete pavement that would not only meet the functional requirements in terms of load-bearing capacity, but also the demands of the high quality of living on the estate. The traffic-calmed streets should also set visual accents and be self-explanatory with the help of gutters and color differentiation. The surface must be designed in such a way that pedestrians and children playing on it can move around safely.”
Suitable paving enables earlier completion of the settlement
The decision was made in favor of CombiStabil, a stone system from the Einstein paving family from Beton Pfenning in Lampertheim. “This stone system combines functionality and appearance in an ideal way and therefore met all the requirements placed on the paving,” says Andreas Mangold. A characteristic feature of this system paving from the Einstein paving family is the D-point joint technology, which ensures that there is only minimal contact at the bottom edges of the stones when they are laid. Unlike many other interlocking pavers with spacer or interlocking cam systems, the proportion of the surface where the stones touch is therefore very small. This prevents crunching, and the joint required to absorb traffic loads is always maintained, thus ensuring optimum force transmission between the stones. Andreas Mangold: “This stone system maintains the elasticity of the paving. A number of heavy construction vehicles have rolled over the approximately 7,500 square meters of the system paving since the start of the building construction phase. Because the joints in this concrete paving perform their function optimally, shear and horizontal forces are buffered and transferred evenly to the base layers. Even massive maneuvering movements of the construction vehicles pose no problem for the surfaces.”
Einstein joint technology: a winning combination of technology and design
In addition to the functional properties, the external qualities also spoke in favor of this paving system: “With its 18 x 24 x 10 cm format, we also liked the look of the paving,” explains Andreas Mangold. “Purely functional paving systems sometimeshave the disadvantage that they don’t look very contemporary. Combi Stabil, on the other hand, creates a pleasant living environment with its clear lines and calm joint pattern and is very easy to walk on thanks to the small chamfers. In terms of color, we opted for a mix of brown, peat and sierra. The street space is structured by an anthracite-colored composite trough channel – matching the CombiStabil system.”
Building construction work has been underway in the “In den Dornen3” development area since spring 2021. Looking at the development today, there are no discernible shifts in the road surface despite intensive use. Andreas Mangold: “For us, eternal gravel roads in new development areas are now a taboo forever.”
