BUUR has been assigned to elaborate a vision and a project for the so called ‘tramway 1’ axis connecting the railway station ‘Gent Sint-Pieters’ to the centre of Gent in order to optimize the fluidity of the public transport in this part of the city.
The axis between the railway station and the ‘Kouter’ has an important function in terms of fluidity of the different modes of transport. The current laying out is inappropriate to meet the objectives that the city of Gent and the ‘De Lijn’ have set for tramway 1, namely transform it into an axis of public transport that has priority over all the other modes. Indeed, for the moment being, the trams, running in tram tracks that are embedded in the road, are often blocked by traffic jams; some of the tram stops are very narrow or located at wrong places. The project also integrates the construction of a safe and specific lane for soft mobility alongside the tramway.
The purpose of this project is twofold. On the one hand, it aims the complete redesign of the ‘Koningin Elisabethlaan’, the ‘Kortrijksesteenweg’ and the crossing with the city ring road R40. On this section, the project foresees tram lanes allowing the trams to run in their own dedicated tracks and the planting of greenery to convert the street into a boulevard. On the other hand, a system for regulated access will be implemented on the section between the ‘Kortrijksepoortstraat’ and the ‘Kouter’. At the rush hours, a camera detection system will stop the traffic on the ring road in order to offer free passage to the trams.
After having made a thorough analysis of the tramway axis and its surroundings, BUUR has drawn up a number of urban guidelines that integrate the vision of the different partners. The solutions that have been formulated within the scope of these guidelines can be summarized as follows: harmonization of the different modes of transportation; repositioning of the tram stops; solutions aiming the reduction of parking facilities; connection between the ‘Citadelpark’ and the ‘Pauluswijk’; creation of green boulevards.
The redesign started in the spring of 2009 and was finalized at the end of 2011.
