Concrete driveways in Wallsend

Driveways in Wallsend, 2287

Wallsend is a western suburb 11 km from the Newcastle CBD, with Nelson Street as the historic main street joining old Wallsend and Plattsburg, Minmi Road running out to Fletcher and Maryland and in to the Newcastle Link Road, and Wallsend Village on the old soccer ground since 1985. Farming gave way to coal in 1861, and rapid development followed in the late 1800s across the 320 acre Lemon Grove Estate. The mine ran until the early 1930s. Today the east is residential and the west rural, with 5,764 dwellings, nearly four in five of them separate houses and townhouses filling in between since the 2000s. The work is replacing old driveways on a late 1800s grid and pouring shared driveways on the infill sites among them.

Low ground beside the creek

Early settlers passed over Wallsend because it was low and swampy, on the southern side of Hexham Swamp; Federal Park was marsh, and the shopping centre stands on ground raised and levelled for a football ground in 1921, though there is hilly terrain too. Ironbark Creek runs through the town centre, overland flow in a rare storm puts it at significant flood risk, and the June 2007 storm inundated homes and businesses; Hunter Water plans to widen 660 metres of the channel from 2027. Most of the suburb appears to sit inside the Newcastle Mine Subsidence District, with only the far north eastern fringe perhaps outside, and the undermining is on record, the 1870s Plattsburg school having cracked over the Co-operative Mine’s workings. A driveway does not engage the district, since driveways and hard stand spaces are exempt under every Subsidence Advisory NSW guideline except 4 and 5; the lot is checked on the NSW Planning Portal Spatial Viewer before a garage or a shed is ordered.

Old grid, new infill

The staple is a removal and replacement of a driveway that has cracked or sunk on soft ground, poured back at two-car width where the lot allows, with falls that send water off the block rather than to the garage. A plain concrete strip beside a sound original is the cheaper widening. The townhouse sites bring a shared driveway and a courtyard slab behind each unit, and an exposed aggregate forecourt fronts a renovated cottage on the grid. Fletcher next door is the estate version of the same council.

The crossing on an infill site

For a dual occupancy or townhouse row the crossing is lodged as a Section 138 (Type 1) application with City of Newcastle as soon as the DA or CDC is issued, because nothing can be poured on the footway until the approval letter exists and council publishes neither a fee nor a processing time. Drawing A1300 wants the crossing at least 100 mm thick in 25 MPa concrete with SL72 mesh, and council inspects the formwork first. The Section 138 guide has the lodgement.

Finishes on the old grid

Plain broom suits a shared driveway and a courtyard, coloured concrete suits a townhouse forecourt, and exposed aggregate a renovated weatherboard front. The crossing goes down plain broom with bevelled edges under council’s drawing, and a coloured or exposed crossing is a request on the application, never a given.

Wallsend rates per square metre

Supplied and laid, coloured concrete $115 to $160; exposed aggregate $130 to $185; plain $95 to $130; patios and alfresco $100 to $180; paths $90 to $130; shed and garage slabs $110 to $150; the old driveway broken out and carted adds about $35. In Wallsend the ground moves the price, because a base on low, once swampy land is dug deeper and built up in compacted layers, and a drain and pipe to the street often joins the job. Size it in the calculator, read the cost guide, and check whoever quotes against the specification and the Section 138 guide.