I am looking at a buried structure with landscaping and vegetation on top. The plants will sit in concrete planters with a well controlled depth of fill, so the weight of the soil is well accounted for.
But the weight of the vegetation doesn't seem to be addressed anywhere in particular, so I'm wondering if anyone has experience?
This would include various plants, shrubs, grass, and small trees (up to about 3-4 metres high). So far, this has been considered as a 0.5 kPa superimposed dead load with load factor of 2.0. Does that seem appropriate?
I should also mention that the landscaping will be routinely tended to, and the trees can only grow so high before they would start clashing with other parts of the structure, so there is no risk of these growing uncontrollably.
But the weight of the vegetation doesn't seem to be addressed anywhere in particular, so I'm wondering if anyone has experience?
This would include various plants, shrubs, grass, and small trees (up to about 3-4 metres high). So far, this has been considered as a 0.5 kPa superimposed dead load with load factor of 2.0. Does that seem appropriate?
I should also mention that the landscaping will be routinely tended to, and the trees can only grow so high before they would start clashing with other parts of the structure, so there is no risk of these growing uncontrollably.