In August 2009 we depaved three areas of the ecovillage with the assistance of City Repair’s Depave project. The main area consisted of 12 parking spaces between the building and the street. A smaller area was depaved at the south east corner of the building. Finally, a strip about one foot wide was depaved along the south boundary fence.
The actual physical work began on August 22 when several volunteers first cut the edge of the depaved area. Then the parking lot and smaller area were cut into tiles that could be pried up by volunteers with hand tools. The strip was also cut next to the boundary fence.
The following Saturday about forty volunteers pried up the asphalt, filling 6 large dumpsters with asphalt chunks. Several volunteers also came Sunday to wrap up the removal. On Monday the dumpsters were picked up for recycling into new asphalt.
Over the next few weeks a few remaining volunteers and some hired help removed the last asphalt remnants and also recycled the underlying gravel into neighborhood driveways.
As of December 2009, some large chunks of concrete fill and portions of an old building foundation remain to be removed. These will be removed during drier weather with a tractor. At the same time the entire front area will be graded to include sunken areas for swales and raised areas for berms.
before and after site plan schematics
panorama of main depave area
DEPAVE 8-29-09, cut here!
view of asphalt depave boundary
cutting the asphalt one week before main event
warm up exercises near empty dumpsters
asphalt removal begins; half of parking lot removed
Organizer Eric harvests a watermelon for lunch
group photo at end of main asphalt removal
panorama of depave area -- no more asphalt!
We also depaved a strip along the south parking area in order to plant along the boundary fence; the trench is being filled with compost and wood chips to enable planting vines along the fence.
After the asphalt was removed, we removed the underlying gravel by hand, recycling it into neighborhood driveways. Eventually, all the gravel was removed. Under the gravel we discovered a foundation for what research revealed was a house that was demolished in 1965. Because the foundation consisted of many large chunks of concrete we enlisted heavy equipment to remove it and then grade the site. This project took place on Earth Day, April 22, 2010 and April 23. We captured this in two time lapse movies, one for each day.