"Not allowed to do any lab tests etc, just VTA.
You can't even do an MTA (Manual...)? You can't poke around the defect to measure and assess it? Can you smell that orange part?
"... a concrete footpath was laid nearby (within 1') and consequently the tree was damaged,
If you dig away the dirt you'll find rotten/missing roots, betcha a shilling.
with a week to hand this darned thing in the lecturer tells me on Thursday I'm not allowed to recommend removals!
* My kinda guy. Tree could have decay excavated, pathogen(s) ID'd if possible, strength loss gauged and risk rated w/ height figured in and also woundwood's extra strength--40% in red maple. Height and sprawl reduced if warranted.
"It's the first time I've seen cambium just crumbling away from the heartwood and seperating away,
I've seen it before but I don't know thecanker/ pest.
"this is a real busy site and this is in a traffic island with vehicles travelling all around it!
If removals are not allowed, then regular monitoring.
"
This form the latest ASCA newsletter:
"It was a wet and windy day. Dad sat idling in his SUV in the line in front of the school, waiting to pick up his child. The next time he saw her, he was in the hospital. A gust had toppled a sugar maple, crushing his car and his back. ,,, the roots that lifted out of the soil in a line parallel to the sidewalk were all dark in color. No living root growing toward the sidewalk was evident. This indicated that the cutting of roots and resultant decay during sidewalk replacement resulted in a loss of stability....
I reviewed the site conditions with the public works director, who told me the sidewalk was replaced six years before. Deadwood was pruned a year before the casualty, but since the leaves were in good shape, the tree was judged to be healthy. An affordable program of tree management was proposed, and high on the list of changes was methods of sidewalk repair. With the publication of Reducing Infrastructure Damage by Tree Roots ( synopsized by Dr. Costello at the 2004 ASCA conference), towns are looking more at other ways of managing pavement near trees. Creatively merging the green infrastructure with the gray, many strategies for resolving conflicts between mature trees and sidewalks are detailed in this book. In order of impact they are:
1. Remove old panels. Install a new sidewalk of packed stone, asphalt, pervious concrete or concrete curved away from buttress roots.
2. Remove old panels. Bridge buttress roots with packed structural soil and sand under fabric. Install sections of recycled rubber, asphalt, bricks, pavers, pervious concrete or concrete above. (If concrete, reinforce with fiberglass rebar, wire mesh, or standard rebar)
3. Leave heaved sidewalk in place and make the surface smoother by either grinding down the lifted edges or making ramps.
4. Remove old panels, prune roots, and install new panels at original grade.
When liability and replacement cost are factored in, strategies #1-3 cost less, but #4 is still by far the most common in our area. I hope I never get another call like this one, but as long as sidewalk installers cut roots, more losses are inevitable."
The book's only $20. here; can you get it in AU?
What will you give us for helpin with yer homework?
