McKenzie Park, Comox: a DecoMark interactive pathway for community spaces

McKenzie Park in Comox, BC received a new interactive pathway feature using DecoMark preformed thermoplastics, a system designed for longevity and design flexibility on community pathway surfaces.

Interactive pathways have become a popular request from parks and recreation departments over the past several years. The concept is straightforward: rather than a plain asphalt or concrete path, the surface incorporates design elements that engage users, particularly children, as they walk or run along the route.

DecoMark for interactive path applications

DecoMark is the right product for this type of application. As a preformed thermoplastic, it's manufactured to exact specifications off-site: the designs can include any imagery, pattern or interactive element the client specifies. The sheets are then thermally bonded to the asphalt surface during installation.

The performance characteristics that matter for a community park pathway:

• Durability: The manufacturer gives DecoMark the same durability as standard thermoplastic road marking: a service life measured against traffic, not seasons, and well beyond painted equivalents.
• Design flexibility: Any design that can be produced as a cut file can be manufactured as a DecoMark sheet. Nature themes, wayfinding elements, games, educational content: the design space is broad.
• Safety: The finish provides traction for running children, and the material needs no repainting to keep its colour.

The system

Square One installs DecoMark under our preformed thermoplastic service. The manufacturer's published facts: a preformed thermoplastic, heat-fused to the pavement; fully custom artwork (logos, emblems, wayfinding symbols and complex designs) in a full colour spectrum; durability as standard thermoplastic; and a track record on community identity projects across Canada. Where a whole path needs colour rather than graphics, StreetBond® coatings fill the field and DecoMark carries the detail. The specification is on the DecoMark product page, and the parks and paths gallery shows the material underfoot.

Comox and Vancouver Island

McKenzie Park is one of a growing number of Vancouver Island community spaces that have specified decorative surface systems in recent years. The Island's municipalities are increasingly treating parks infrastructure as design projects rather than pure infrastructure projects: investing in surfaces that activate spaces and reflect community character.

The same material carries the sensory play pathway at South Langford Elementary, completed for the school's September 2025 opening, and the play shapes and target circles at West Langford in the schools and sports courts gallery, games and wayfinding cut in DecoMark and fused into the path.

For a parks department planning an interactive path

• Design for the walk, not the drawing. A path is read one element at a time, at a child's pace; a sequence of small games and markers does more than one large graphic.
• Choose the substrate first. DecoMark fuses to asphalt; a new path is easiest when the paving and the thermoplastic are scheduled together, so the sheets go onto clean, cured asphalt.
• Keep the cut files. A path that gets extended in a later phase, or repaired after a utility cut, should carry the same elements.

Square One serves Vancouver Island as a service region, from Comox to Greater Victoria. For a park pathway project, send a photo of the path and a postal code to office@squareonepaving.com, call 250-391-0270 for Vancouver Island (604-612-6209 for the office), or use the contact form. We come out, look, and put a written quote together.