Coloured Concrete Road For Rural Setting (Oct 1977)

When the owners of properties fronting Roma Parade in the Shire of Sherbrooke, Victoria requested construction of their private road, it posed real problems for the Shire’s designers. Roma Parade is very steep havi ng a 67 metre fall in level over its 248 metres length. Their final design included grades of up to 27%. They had the problem of firstly constructing the road and secondly of ensuring that it did not st ide down the hill when com Deleted. The Shire sought the advice of the Austral ian Road Research Board and the Country Roads Board who suggested a reinforced concrete pavement. Sherbrooke is in the Dandenong Ranges some 34 kilometres east of Melbourne and is environmentally very sensitive, any undue removal of the natural cover is not tolerated. The area around Roma Parade is undeveloped and is visualIy very prominent from the surrounding main roads. For this reason it was dec id ed to use coloured concrete which would blend into the surrounding countryside. A warm b rown tone was chosen and was supplied premixed in the concrete.