Council plan saves trees and road in Bamford Lane

Date: Tuesday, 11th August 2009

Forty-five fig trees earmarked for removal will be preserved after a decision today by Townsville City Council’s Infrastructure Committee.

The trees, which were due to be removed in an upgrade of Bamford Lane, will instead be saved with a maintenance program.

The council believes that regular overall pruning and the installation of root barriers will prevent the fig trees from continually damaging the road infrastructure.

Committee chairman Cr Brian Hewett welcomed the decision.

“This is a great result. Bamford Lane is one of our main thoroughfares and it’s an attractive boulevard and walking path for local residents,” Cr Hewett said.

“While the fig trees are compromising the integrity of the road and we were presented with a report that documented this, the focus at today’s meeting was saving these trees.

“We’ve come up with a creative solution that shouldn’t cost much and enables us to proceed with repairing the road.”

Under the 2009-10 City Budget, council is repairing both sides of Bamford Lane, from Dalrymple Rd to Mill Dr roundabout and Charles St roundabout to Ross River Rd, at a cost of $876,000.

Eight African mahogany trees which are destroying the road also will be replaced with more suitable street trees.

The staff report tabled at today’s meeting found the half-grown African mahogany trees were already intruding into the road base and would do increasing damage as they grew larger.

African mahogany trees can grow to 50m in height, with trunks exceeding 3m and root systems that can reach beyond the width of a road in search of moisture.

In recent years, council has banned the planting of African mahoganies as street trees in new subdivisions.

Mayor Cr Les Tyrell said the council removed trees only as a last resort.

“The report utilises the expertise of council’s infrastructure and horticulture staff and found that the African mahoganies would continue to compromise the road surface in Bamford Lane unless they were replaced with a more suitable species,” Cr Tyrell said.