Longhua plans slow traffic system

Longhua District is planning to build a slow traffic system over the railways in the North Railway Station area.

Three designs have passed reviews by a panel comprised of seven well-known experts in the planning and architecture of bridges and landscapes at an assessment meeting organized by the district’s project planning, administration and construction agencies.

The designs by Swooding Architects Limited, Shenzhen LAY-OUT Planning Consultants Co. Ltd. and two consortiums stood out in the two rounds of votes by panel members.

The competition attracted 28 design teams from home and abroad to compete. After the preliminary selection, six design institutions were invited to submit their designs.

The North Station Central Business Area had been split into two parts by the railways, with the urban area separated from the countryside park.

The district is considering building cross-railway bridges and corridors to connect the forest area and urban area separated by railways.

The slow traffic system is part of the design to build Shenzhen North Railway Station into a transport hub. The designs are being developed at two levels, namely the level of urban design and the level of detailed design.

The overall design covers 123.9 hectares of land encompassed by Fulong Boulevard, Renmin Road in Longhua, Green Valley Park, Minbao Road and the ecological protection line of Changlingpi Reservoir. Included within the area are Hongshan School, Xinhua Hospital, Green Valley Park and Hongmushan Ecology Area.

The urban design covers 2.76 square kilometers, which is encompassed by Meiguan Expressway in the east, the west park of North Railway Station in the west, Minfeng Road-Nanyuan Road-Minkang Road in the south and Baisong 1st Road-Mintang Road in the north.

The detailed design scope includes at least the East Square of North Railway Station (including the Intercity Station section), Station Park in East Square and the adjacent construction land on the north and south sides of Station Park, totaling 29 hectares.

The detailed design area covers an area of 28.4 hectares, which extends to Fulong Boulevard in the west, Minwang Street in the north, Xinhua Hospital to the north and Xinqu Boulevard to the east.

The cross-railway corridor, culture park and Hongmushan Ecological Area are included in this part.

The final winners will be announced at the end of the month. The first prize winner will be awarded 2.2 million yuan (US$313,788). The second and third prize winners will be awarded 800,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan, respectively.

The district also plans to build two bike-only roadways to link Nanshan and Futian districts.

The plan has been approved by the city government.

The Longhua-Futian special bike road will be built along Meiguan and Huanggang roads, connecting Bijia Hill and Lianhua Hill at its ends.

According to the plan of the Shenzhen transport bureau, the independent bike roads will be either elevated or on the ground, depending the situation, and link major residential, business and office clusters, checkpoints, and railway and Metro stations. The ground-level bike roads will be separated from other lanes by fences or greenery belts.