Barcelonian Tram Tracks Detailed with Grass
by TreeHugger 
on 11.25.04
The Barcelonian Engineers that designed these tracks clearly subscribe to a similar vision to TreeHugger. What a great idea! Instead of hard, ugly, impervious asphalt we get lovely, green, air purifying, water filtering, micro-habitat creating, sigh inducing grass. Right up to the damn tracks non etheless. Good work Barcelonians! [by Graham Hill] Thanks Mr. Charlie Scott for pics!
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How lovely! This reminds me of the 'Country Lanes' project in Vancouver, where back alleys (between main thoroughfares) were 'grassed'. To avoid the grass being torn up by e.g garbage trucks the engineers using a honeycomb material called Golpla so that the trucks actually ride a few cm above the grass. Ingenious. More info here: http://www.tc.gc.ca/programs/environment/UTSP/greeninglocaltransportation.htm
Great blog, by the way!
Have you ever seen the old trolley line in New Orleans? Or were those weeds....
Thanks for making ECOol.
Wait a second here; when did grass--an only green if taken care of properly, high energy consuming non-native monoculture with really no habitat value at all--become the picture of sustainable design? Sure it looks better in a picture, but it would likely require heavy irrigation, fertilizing and a lifetime of mowing which produces its own host of problems. Without care, it would brown out and look crappy. Good on day one, not so good once the novelty wears off...
@BARAY: There are grasses that can survive on rain water alone. How do you know it's non-native? There are a lot of benefits to using grass. It's nicer to look at, especially for the tram driver. It's cooler than pavement -- temperature-wise. It absorbs water and prevents flooding. Some grasses don't even require all that much maintenance. Seems like a good idea to me...
Don't be so down on grass.
@stradric: I will remain down on grass--native or not--that requires constant maintenance in a less that natural setting. In a tramway such as the one shown, the grass would likely require irrigation if not fertilization due to the fact that its likely on a concrete subgrade (not a native condition). Nor would it absord rainwater as you suggest without being able to percolate into the soil beneath. If you have not been to Barcelona--which has a Mediterranean climate--the nice green truf as you see it in the pictures are without a doubt not native: they'd be brown most of the year as they are in California, Arizona, Mexico, etc.