Implementing active travel – Nottingham Greenway

Background

Nottingham City Council procured Project Centre to provide design services in support of three active travel routes. The European Regional Development Fund and Nottingham City Council funded the scheme.

The council identified three routes across the city with the intention to improve the walking and cycling infrastructure along each route.

Our design commission included the development of high-level concept plans through to detailed design for all three routes to be delivered within ten weeks. The improvements covered just over 2km of walking and cycling infrastructure.

Process

Given the challenging timescales, our multidisciplinary teams worked collaboratively with the council and stakeholders to provide designs which addressed both the community, motorists and the local environment. Project Centre supported Nottingham City Council with their engagement strategy by:

• Undertaking a site cycle and walkover to identify the most problematic areas and provide suitable solutions
• Developing concept to detailed designs, of cycleways, footways and road carriageway, along links and junctions
• Providing traffic calming elements, cycle-friendly crossings and priority single-file sections with cycle bypasses
• Improvements to drainage systems and flood management
• Developing 3D modelling designs
• Preparing of bills of quantities to estimate construction costs

We overcame challenging pinch-points by using shallow-sided cycleway demarcation blocks. These increased the effective width, but still alerted visually impaired pedestrians to the proximity of the cycleway.

Impact of our active travel schemes

The team completed the project in a very short timescale. Our design solutions were well received and compliant with funding constraints and design standards. Nottingham City Council rated our services at 92% overall on our satisfaction feedback form.

The Project Centre team were very professional and responsive. They understood the brief and provided great quality designs for Nottingham City Council.

Nottingham City Council