Nørregaard Area

The Nørregaard Complex (nearby Horsedammen Road) houses a number of municipal institutions, which adress a broad target group among the municipality’s residents. Unfortunately it has been experienced that, during heavy rainfall, the neighborhood is prone to flooding, if it rains too much. Horsedammen was therefore given high priority in Brøndby Municipality’s climate adaptation plan. In collaboration with HOFOR, a number of climate protection systems have been put in place in the area.

The climate adaptation project was implemented in 2019.

In the backyards around Nørregård, open water  channels have been established between the buildings to divert the rainwater away from them and towards open rain water solutions like rain gardens and a pond. At the same time, this gives the many different users at Nørregård something beautiful to look at. The “slopes” on the canals are planted with a varied plant cover and the existing trees have been preserved as far as it was possible. The rain gutters are no longer connected to the sewer. The only remaining connection to the combined sewer system is an emergency overflow. Brøndby Municipality has been responsible for designing, planning and carrying out the recreational climate adaptations around Nørregård, and HOFOR has financed the project.

The parking area at Nørregård has also undergone some changeg. A large scale below-surface basin was established to collect and delay the rainwater from the surrounding neighborhood. The parking area is paved with permeable asphalt, which means that the rainwater can seep down through the asphalt to the underground basin.

However, the planning of the project has not been without challenges. The area has an especially high groundwater table, a nearby groundwater well, and a high-lying overflow to the existing sewer system, which now serves as a back up solution. This means that the underground basin can not be too low and also needs a solid bottom to avoid soil contamination by road salt. Therefore, the basin was built of 16 rows of Aquaton tunnel fascines and shards, which together have a capacity of 2800 m3. In addition, there is a capacity of 1000 m3 in the cover material (highly porous asphalt and gravel) itself. The underground rainwater basin is enclosed by a bentonite membrane to avoid ground water contamination.