Completed in September 2024, Stretford Kingsway saw the reclamation of over half of a dual carriageway for walking, cycling and dwell time, incorporating sustainable urban drainage and new wildlife habitats. Connectivity improvements include well-lit pedestrian crossings and an active travel mobility hub featuring segregated cycle lanes, pathways and enhanced public transport. The transformation aimed to provide an attractive, accessible environment, prioritising active travel and biodiversity.

 

 

Who is on the project team? (designer, consultants, etc)

 

Civic Engineers

Exterior Architecture

The LK Group

Simon Fenton Partnership

A E Yates

FCB Studios

 

Describe the context of this project and its neighbourhood and the community it serves?

 

As part of the Government’s Levelling Up agenda, Trafford Borough Council won Future High Street Funding in 2021 to improve pedestrian connectivity to Stretford Town Centre, with a focus on the streets around Stretford Mall. This included Kingsway, a four-lane, vehicle-dominated corridor where pedestrians were hemmed in by guardrailing and subjected to fast-moving traffic noise and pollution, with limited crossing points, no opportunities or places to dwell and no protection for cyclists. There was a need to deliver transformational change and an exceptional piece of infrastructure that would improve the vibrancy of the town centre and the wider community, and make Stretford more accessible, inclusive and safer. As lead designer on the project, Civic Engineers worked alongside The LK Group, Exterior Architecture, Simon Fenton, Partnership, FCB Studios, and A E Yates Ltd. to reclaim more than half of the previously out-of-scale dual carriageway, and repurpose it for walking, wheeling, cycling and dwell time, with sustainable urban drainage creating a much more attractive setting and providing new habitat for wildlife. The project will be completed in September 2024. The work is part of an overall major project to transform Stretford into a greener, healthier and more sustainable town centre. This includes the regeneration of the Mall in a joint venture with Bruntwood, which Civic Engineers is also working on.

 

Tell us what you did and how it was designed and delivered.

 

Working closely with Exterior Architecture, Civic Engineers led the redesign of Kingsway and the junctions at either end, to make it a more connected, community-enabling, experience focussed and bio-diverse place. Civic Engineers carried out baseline and proposed development assessments, policy reviews, junction modelling and data analysis, and in-depth community engagement and consultation to feed into an agreed vision for Kingsway. Breaking the vision down to specific objectives, linked to design interventions, showed how policies and funding objectives would be achieved in Stretford. It was important the scheme fulfilled local and national policy objectives, including Greater Manchester’s Streets for All Strategy and LTN 1/20, as well as meeting stakeholder requirements, such as retaining the high level of bus service to the Stretford Mall frontage and the taxi rank. Civic Engineers had an ongoing dialogue with TfGM, Trafford Council Highways and other parties to ensure that it knits seamlessly with Trafford Council and Bruntwood’s Stretford Mall redevelopment. Together with Exterior Architecture we designed a greener and more bio-diverse Kingsway with the introduction of a Sustainable Urban Drainage Strategy incorporating new trees and rain gardens. Places to dwell provide amenity for the communities using the street, as well as enhancing the frontage of the Mall to benefit the new businesses proposed as part of the adjacent Stretford Mall redevelopment. It was essential that the remodelled Kingsway felt safe at all times of day and night and is accessible to all groups of peoples.

 

What is the social and environmental impact of the project?

 

Kingsway is a pioneering project and a benchmark for how our streets can be repurposed to respond to the climate, biodiversity and health and wellbeing crises and create attractive places for people to spend time outdoors in urban areas. The high-quality, climate resilient regeneration with active travel at its heart has delivered a transformative impact on the local community’s quality of life. The project has delivered: Better connectivity and safety with improved, well-lit pedestrian crossing points, an active travel ‘mobility hub’ including segregated cycle lanes, pathways and enhanced public transport provision, greatly improved public realm with new seating, tables, sun loungers, planting, play areas and lighting, rain gardens to capture surface water from the road and footpaths before it enters the drainage network reducing flooding as part of a sustainable drainage system, green amenities, with a biodiverse mix of bulbs, perennials, shrubs and trees, prioritising native and pollinator attracting species, and enhanced frontage and sense of arrival for Stretford Mall, Stretford Library and surrounding commercial units to benefit the businesses with increased footfall.