Sidewalk Root Barrier System

About the Program

Category: County Resiliency (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

Broward County Highway and Bridge Maintenance Division’s (HBMD) Construction Program staff developed and implemented the Sidewalk Root Barrier System, a method of saving mature trees that have grown to impact sidewalks along roadways. This method, nicknamed by staff as the “rock burrito” method, keeps the tree’s stabilizing roots intact and instead, naturally redirects the growth of the roots downward and horizontally, rather than upward where the roots end up pushing, lifting, and cracking concrete sidewalks. Broward County is a highly urbanized county that was built on reclaimed land from swamp areas that made up the Florida Everglades. The reclaimed land was developed into the urban environment that is Broward County today. Trees are a fragile environmental and economical resource for our community that are often damaged or destroyed by hurricanes and storms that pass over our area. Since its implementation in 2015, the “rock burrito” method has saved 35 trees that otherwise would have had to be removed.