Root mapping that cleared the way for a new driveway

Carss Park · 2026 · Architects & designers

The challenge

A new house and driveway were planned beside seven trees on council land along the southern boundary. Council needed to know whether the works would harm them.

What we did

• Dug a 14 m root mapping trench along the boundary in 2022 and found ten roots, only two of them structural.

• Overlaid the root map on the new plans: the driveway keeps 1.5 m of the larger root, and the works take 9.6% and 0.71% of two trees' root zones.

• Showed the house sits mostly on sandstone where tree roots don't grow.

• Set a fenced, mulched protection zone and arborist-supervised hand digging along the driveway edge.