Questions and answers
GreenBlue’s Soil Cells have been installed in hundreds of locations with freeze/thaw conditions, including Northern USA, Canada, and Northern Europe. The nature of the void space within GreenBlue soil cells provides ample room for expansion and contraction, and thus no issues in freeze/thaw conditions.
GreenBlue Urban’s systems are manufactured in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
GreenBlue’s soil cell is designed to outlast the infrastructure it’s installed in, but in reality the system will significantly outlive the infrastructure around it because it’s manufactured from 100% HDPE which is only broken down by UV light which its unaffected by because of being buried underground. There are GreenBlue Urban ArborSystem installations that date back to 1992.
GreenBlue soil cells are designed with large apertures to provide vast unrestricted growth for tree roots. When a root does grow into an Upright Panel (or “leg”) of the soil cell structure, it breaks into fibrous rooting around the Upright Panel and continues its growth without harm to the system. For more details on how roots colonize in soil cells, download our Roots in Soil Cells report.
GreenBlue ArborSystem replicates the “forest” environment that a tree requires to thrive, and therefore a tree planted in a GreenBlue soil cell will theoretically live as long as a tree in a forest setting, assuming that the amount of the system used is sufficient for the particular tree species.
The average cost of the system is $6 to $7 USD per cubic foot ($275 to $320 CAD per cubic meter) (which includes GreenBlue soil cells, Irrigation/Aeration, Root Management, and filterfabrics/geogrids).