Working with local partners, Blacksmith covered the soil with a “geotech” fabric (a semi-permeable material) then placed new dirt over the top.

“The way it works is, we take a geotech fabric and roll it over the existing field to protect it, and then we put a composite plastic in the shape of plywood over top of the fabric,” Moser said.

He said The Boulevard will soon be open to traffic, after council used a technique of layering gravel and a geotech fabric to re-build the road.

The tested fabric is four to five times as expensive as common geotechnical fabrics, he said, though initial costs might be offset by avoided road-repair costs.