NEWTON TOWN CENTRE BUS LANES AND INTERSECTION IMPROVEMENTS

The City envisioned a more sustainability focused transportation network with enhanced accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users

Client: City of Surrey

Location: Surrey, BC, Canada

Project Type: Municipal, Transportation

About This Project

The City of Surrey retained ISL to develop a plan for an enhanced arterial roadway, one that aligned with the City’s Vision Zero goals to prioritize human life and health. ISL focused on enhancing safety, accessibility and bringing more reliable transit to this important corridor. Using an innovative approach to traffic islands, the ISL design enhanced pedestrian accessibility and safety while incorporating smaller radius curb returns to slow down traffic and meet Vision Zero Principles. To address the City’s sustainability goals, the project included traffic management plans to minimize impact for all users during construction addressing socio-economic and user health and sustainable methods that eliminated construction and reused materials whenever possible.

The (1.6 km) stretch of King Boulevard between 64 Avenue and Hall Road near the Newton Town Centre is a significant North/South transportation corridor in Surrey. The six-lane roadway was mainly dominated by car-centric traffic, with pedestrian accommodation designs rooted in bygone accessibility philosophies, limited transit reliability, and active transportation infrastructure design based on a hierarchy of needs that prioritized motorist comfort and speed.

The City envisioned a more sustainability focused transportation network with enhanced accessibility for pedestrians, cyclists and transit users. ISL redesigned this central corridor, bringing improvements to traffic flow, increased reliability in transit use, and improvements to the comfort and safety of cycling infrastructure while creating a roadway that achieves the City’s goals.

The ISL team identified and used a unique combination of technical excellence to design an innovative traffic islands. These smart channelized islands were designed to enhance accessibility for pedestrians, while also guiding driver behaviour compelling them to slow down in high dense traffic areas, increasing safety for all users. In general, observed operating speed in urban areas is largely dependent on the surrounding context of the corridor. Given the vision for the Newton Town Centre with increased grid density, increased walkability, future transit, cycling network development, and vulnerable road user safety, the intersections were designed to encourage slower maneuvering speeds and increased pedestrian visibility. Traffic islands and pedestrian crossings were designed to be “walk-through” islands to increase the accessibility of pedestrian facilities. The walk-through islands minimize tripping hazards as well as reduce barriers to pedestrians with mobility challenges or those that use assistive devices by eliminating bumps and ramps at crossings.

ISL was able to use sustainable construction methods and innovative engineering principles to develop the Newton Town Centre Bus Lanes and Intersections to align with the City’s Vision Zero goals. ISL brought enhanced safety and accessibility features, while also bringing more reliable transit to this busy corridor ensuring it is was designed with the future in mind.