DrainPave completed the installation of two artworks on Beaufort Street in Perth. Designed by artist Roly Skender, the artworks are among the first to be installed on the surface of a major road in Western Australia.

The vibrant contemporary designs on the road indicate ‘slow points’ at the entrance and exit points of the busy Beaufort Street pedestrian area in the City of Vincent. DrainPave used StreetPrint, considered the most innovative decorative paving system on the market for the installation, with each colourful artwork covering 800sqm.

DrainPave Manager Peter Borg explained that the road surface artworks were the first to be designed by an artist and also the first ‘permanent’ artwork of their kind created on Perth roads. He added that no product other than StreetPrint can withstand the rigours of 25,000 vehicles per day.

The vibrant palette of colours on the road is also a first for Perth. According to Mr Borg, there are several StreetPrint installations in the city, but they feature conventional brick, slate and cobble StreetPrint patterns using more traditional colours.

StreetPrint combines the strength of concrete with the flexibility of asphalt, and allows virtually any pattern or design to be created in a wide range of 3-dimensional architectural colours.

Key features and benefits of StreetPrint decorative paving system include fast application; low-cost and seamless repairs or changes if required; can be installed over an existing surface, saving cost; and durability tested in more than 30 countries.

Inspired by the orbit of the planets around the sun, the Beaufort Street installations feature large vividly coloured geometric shapes with the bold colours reflecting the vibrancy of the precinct, while helping to visually connect one side of the road to the other and highlighting the area as a high-use pedestrian-friendly zone.

A subsidiary of LD Total, and the sole distributor and installer of StreetPrint in WA, DrainPave provides decorative asphalt and porous decorative paving solutions for architectural and traffic management applications in the commercial, government and domestic sectors.

The Beaufort Street installation was executed by DrainPave in close collaboration with the City of Vincent, the Public Transport Authority and Main Roads to ensure the artworks did not detract from new ‘red’ bus lanes. The kerbing was also left uncoated to help provide clear delineation between the bus lanes and the general traffic lanes.

Since the work zone involved a high-use vehicle and pedestrian traffic area, the installation had to be completed at night between 8pm and 3am to accommodate traffic management procedures.

StreetPrint was awarded Product of the Year at the 2014 Awards for the Landscape Industries Association of Western Australia.