Is there a street tree or urban furniture first? The increasingly escalating "tree card contradiction" addresses both the root and root causes of information | contradiction | tree card

Recently, changes have quietly occurred on the road near Zhaojiabang Road on Wanping Road. With the cooperation of the Greening and Urban Appearance Department and the Road Transport Management Department, the excess side branches of the roadside trees were pruned, and the signs that were previously blocked by the roadside trees were moved from the right side of the road to the middle of the road, finally "seeing the light again".

Jiefang Daily's Shangguan News reporter found that the previously insignificant contradictions such as tree signs, tree lamps, and tree houses seem to be intensifying in recent years.

According to data from the Shanghai Greening City Appearance Hotline, from January 1st to March 8th this year, the hotline received a total of 396 complaints about obstruction and interference, an increase of 39.9% compared to the same period last year. Among them, complaints are more concentrated in Pudong, Minhang, Changning and other areas, and the increase is significant.

The recent public information from the Shanghai Greening and Urban Appearance Bureau also demonstrates the universality of "tree sign conflicts": Greening, road transportation, traffic police and other departments jointly investigated 641 roads and found a total of 867 "tree sign conflicts". As of the end of June this year, 796 have been disposed of through pruning and other methods.

Why has the roadside tree, which has made outstanding contributions to the urban ecological environment, become the party that triggers conflicts? How to avoid addressing the symptoms rather than the root cause of the problems that have already occurred, and fundamentally solve the contradiction between trees and urban furniture and buildings?

Different solutions prioritize safety

At 6:45 am on July 19th, Fuxing West Road, which had not yet reached its peak in the morning, became lively early on. The backbone of the street tree team of a branch of Shanghai Xuhui Garden Development Co., Ltd. joined forces to "besiege" a camphor tree in front of the gate of No. 100 Fuxing West Road.

The reporter saw at the scene that a temporary warning line was set up at the intersection of the pedestrian walkway and the lane where the Suzuki tree was located. The street tree "barber" carried an aerial work lift to the platform on the top of the commercial building. First, a safety belt was tied to the waist of a section of the branch, and after confirmation, a chainsaw was used to cut off the bottom of the branch. Then, the sawn branch was slowly transported to the ground with the safety belt.

This pruning process follows the principle of going from high to low and from thin to thick, and goes back and forth in a loop. After about half an hour, a secondary branch that is seven or eight meters long breaks down into pieces, becoming leaves, twigs, and more than ten sections of thick wood weighing 20-30 pounds each.

After unloading the heavy load, the suspension tree straightened its waist, leaving a noticeable scar on the roof railing that had been tightly pressed down by the branches.

Before trimming

After pruning, all Chen Xi shake

"We have been paying attention to it for a long time until we confirmed that it has formed a safety hazard," Yu Shao, the leader of the roadside tree team at a branch of Shanghai Xuhui Garden Development Co., Ltd., told reporters. They usually inspect the roadside trees in the maintenance area every two weeks, especially paying attention to whether the large trees in the restored landscape area have conflicts with nearby urban furniture and buildings.

Recently, this roadside tree has grown excessively, with a section of secondary branches continuously approaching the outer edge of the building.

"The top branches and leaves are too heavy, and the center of gravity of this secondary branch is off." Yu Shao said that a while ago, the patrol personnel stood under the tree to observe, feeling that the tree had been embedded in the outer wall. They contacted the property management to run to the roof and inserted it with their hands, and found that there were almost no gaps. They quickly reported to the competent department and applied for unconventional pruning. Without further intervention, during the flood season, if roadside trees crush rooftop objects or cause them to loosen, resulting in high-altitude falling objects or wall cracks, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Putting safety first, sometimes the resolution of conflicts between roadside trees and urban furniture and buildings is not about moving trees, but requires the latter two to take a step back.

In October 2022, some citizens reported that the roadside trees at the intersection of Tianyaoqiao Road and Xingeng Road blocked the traffic lights, affecting traffic safety. After working on-site in multiple departments, it was decided to extend the traffic lights outward by 50 centimeters.

Why have similar contradictions been handled differently?

Sun An, the head of the Comprehensive Business Department of the Greening Management Center in Xuhui District, said that this is because the roadside trees at the intersection of Tianyaoqiao Road and Xingeng Road are too tall, and large-scale pruning requires the cooperation of professional vehicles and tools, which is extremely time-consuming. Pruning off the branches can easily hit pedestrians and vehicles, and road closure construction seriously affects road traffic. There is no operability, and large-scale pruning can also cause the center of gravity of the trees to be unstable, and the damage form is not to mention. In typhoon days, it is possible to "flip".

Taking into account various factors, moving traffic lights to avoid branches and leaves is the most efficient, economical, and safe choice.

Two Cases of Adjusting the Position of Public Furniture but Not Moving Street Trees"

The reporter noticed that both the conditions for initiating tree pruning and the primary principle for addressing issues such as "tree card conflicts" are related to safety. But this kind of startup condition seems a bit harsh. If we need to clarify that there are safety hazards in the roadside trees before taking action, it will cause some conflicts to "wait" for a longer time to be resolved.

In the eyes of professionals, there are various opinions on what constitutes a safety hazard, and the judgments of regulatory authorities and professional institutions often differ from the public's views.

Taking some street lights as an example, the lamp pole is high and the lamp arm is short. When installing, the growth of the surrounding roadside trees is not taken into account, and several years later, the problem of the light source being "surrounded" by the tree crown is encountered.

Some pedestrians believe that walking on dark roads at night is a safety hazard, while the relevant management departments believe that the natural growth of street trees has not caused any impact on public safety. Even if there is an impact, the main responsibility should be determined based on "first come, first served". In most cases, it is due to inadequate consideration in the design and installation of street lights, and the street light management unit should take the initiative to relocate the street lights.

Considering the limited public space in Shanghai, if the lighting effect after the movement of street lights is still not ideal, the greening management department can cooperate to carry out mild pruning of street trees. However, according to the technical standards for planting and maintenance of street trees, from the perspective of protecting the urban ecological environment and safety, there is generally no "big fight", that is, pruning the second level or above skeleton of street trees.

"Even for unconventional pruning, such as typhoon prevention pruning, according to maintenance technical regulations, pruning is mainly based on pruning, and skeleton branches should not be pruned, nor should the basic form of the tree be changed. Tree transplantation and emergency pruning should be carried out without affecting the survival of the tree, and at least the second level or above skeleton should be retained." Liang Jing, an engineer at the Shanghai Greening Management Guidance Station, said that roadside tree pruning is actually quite professional and not "repair as you want".

Another "tree house contradiction" on Fuxing West Road, based on the principle of eliminating potential safety hazards and taking into account the protection of street trees, has adopted a mild pruning scheme of pruning the top branches and leaves. The branches and trunks "return to the right track" and are no longer heavily pressed on the eaves.

Liang Jing stated that in recent years, Shanghai has made significant progress in addressing issues such as the "tree card conflict". If many conflicts can be resolved with mild pruning, the relevant departments will no longer care about "first come, second served" issues, but will negotiate and resolve them based on the principle of solving problems quickly and easily. At the same time, strengthen the daily maintenance and management of roadside trees. Any hidden dangers and contradictions discovered during winter repairs and summer sprouting should be promptly resolved during tree maintenance to ensure the healthy growth of roadside trees and the normal use of surrounding facilities.

As for the remaining few conflicts that require a major attack on roadside trees, relevant departments have also formed a joint meeting mechanism and agreed on the "threshold" for initiating unconventional pruning - according to the expert group's judgment, there are safety hazards.

"Waiting for the opinions and disposal of the expert group will take some time, please understand." Zhang Ren, the chief technician of a branch of Shanghai Xuhui Landscape Development Co., Ltd., admitted that unconventional pruning of large trees objectively requires favorable timing, location, and people. In addition to routine and heavy maintenance work, the company can organize manpower and material resources to carry out unconventional pruning of about 80 large trees per year. Among the more than 42000 roadside trees in the entire Xuhui area, there are nearly 5000 trees with a diameter greater than 40 centimeters and difficulty in pruning.

Thoroughly solve the problem with a "digital base"

In the interview, relevant departments all mentioned the most thorough way to solve problems such as "tree sign conflicts". Before the landing of public furniture or newly built roadside trees, that is, during the planning and design process, it is necessary to fully evaluate whether there will be conflicts between the two and take targeted avoidance measures.

The reporter noticed that both the technical standards for planting and maintaining roadside trees and the guidelines for setting up urban road traffic signs and markings actually put forward relevant design and setting requirements.

In the design phase, the distance between the roadside tree and ground public facilities and underground pipelines should comply with relevant regulations, such as the distance between traffic signs, road signs, station signs, and the center of the main trunk of the roadside tree should not be less than 1.2 meters. When setting up urban road traffic signs, it is necessary to avoid obstructing the sign board surface by overpasses, lighting facilities, gantries, monitoring facilities, electric poles, roadside trees, hedges, road structures, etc.

Several insiders have admitted that the road space in Shanghai is very limited. In practical operations, it is difficult to strictly maintain the distance between roadside trees and public furniture according to standards, or accurately predict whether the sign board surface can avoid the obstruction of related objects in a few years.

"With the increasing level of refined urban management and the improvement of ecological environment quality, there will be more and more high-quality public furniture, and roadside trees will grow better and better under high-level maintenance. The possibility of conflicts and contradictions is also increasing. It is difficult to do well, but we cannot shrink from it." Long Jiao, Deputy Director of the Greening and Urban Appearance Bureau of Xuhui District, revealed that Xuhui District is optimizing and improving the district level green maintenance dynamic information management system.

On the pilot page of Fuxing West Road, the reporter saw that each street tree was marked with geographical coordinates, including its street tree number, which side of the road it is on, tree species, diameter at breast height, specifications, type of tree cover, and street it belongs to.

It is worth noting that the column on the conflict between roadside trees and facilities also provides a detailed record of which aspect each roadside tree currently conflicts with. For example, the No. 6 Suzuki tree on the north side of Fuxing West Road displays a "tree sign contradiction".

Long Jiao stated that through grid management and other means, the greening department of Xuhui District has sorted out a list of contradictions related to roadside trees in its jurisdiction. These existing problems will urge relevant units to formulate disposal plans as soon as possible, and implement them after being approved by the higher-level supervisory department. In the future, after all roadside trees in the district have established a complete electronic file, it will provide an important "digital base" for urban construction and development.

At that time, when designing and planning public furniture, relevant units can intuitively and efficiently avoid conflicts such as overlapping positions and insufficient spacing.