Read the full Chesterfield Waterside case study - Royal Haskoning ...

Waterside
development
will regenerate
Chesterfield
“Royal Haskoning’s innovative and
practical techniques to forecast
future transport scenarios have led to
the development of a truly impressive
travel plan for Chesterfield Waterside.
Their sustainable approach has
correlated successfully with our
vision for creating a vibrant new
development that is environmentally
friendly and uses renewable
technology where possible.”
Peter Swallow,
Director, Chesterfield Waterside Ltd
client > Chesterfield Waterside
Chesterfield Waterside is an inspirational £300 million scheme to create a vibrant,
thriving community from a 60-acre site which is largely vacant situated on the edge
of Chesterfield town centre, in Derbyshire, England.
At the heart of the massive regeneration project will be a new canal basin, which
will connect to the adjacent River Rother and Chesterfield canal to create a stunning
waterside environment. Around 30 per cent of the surrounding site will consist of
open space, including an outdoor event venue, an ecological park and play areas for
children.
The development, which will use sustainable technology where possible, will include
30,000 square metres of office and business space, creating 2,000 jobs, as well as
1,500 new homes, and shops, restaurants, galleries and leisure facilities.
The scheme is a public private partnership between specialist urban regeneration
company Urbo and Chesterfield Borough Council, who together formed Chesterfield
Waterside Ltd in 2006 in order to deliver the development.
Royal Haskoning’s Highway and Transport Planning group experts, were
commissioned in 2006 by Chesterfield Waterside Ltd to provide advice and technical
analysis around transport issues to support the project’s planning application. This
included producing a Transport Assessment, Travel Plan Framework, and preparing
the traffic and access input into the Application’s Environmental Statement. David
Barker, Associate Director, Transport Assessment, Travel Plan, Traffic and Highway
Engineering said: “Royal Haskoning was brought in to use its considerable experience
of sustainable transport planning and travel infrastructure design. The development
required careful planning to produce effective long-term transport solutions to
manage access to the site, including traffic from ongoing phased construction
work as well as business and residential traffic. It was also essential to develop a
sustainable travel plan for transport flow within the site.”
Chesterfield Waterside

Both images are courtesy of Bolsterstone Group plc
client > Chesterfield Waterside
The Transport Assessment, Travel Plan Framework and traffic and
access section of the environmental statement are all intrinsically
linked and the team’s ultimate objective was to develop an
innovative transport strategy for the whole of the site.
This was based on the Department for Transport’s 2009
Good Practice Guidelines: Delivering travel plans and, due
to the size of the development, is one of the most complex
transport plans the team has ever worked on. As the site has
not yet been constructed, a flexible approach was essential, so
a range of transport scenarios were forecasted and planned.
Establishing access to the area was the first challenge and
involved negotiation with local highway authorities who
highlighted concerns about the primary road nearest to the
development, the A61, being close to capacity during peak
periods. Detailed analysis was needed to gain a clear idea
of how access to the area would be managed. It was vital to
strike the right balance between sustainability and reducing
the need for immediate off-site highway infrastructure costs,
as well as introducing measures to accurately predict future
scenarios to reduce the need for highway improvements in
the future.
It was decided that three separate junctions on the A61 dual
carriageway would be used to access the site. High, median
and low traffic prediction scenarios were integrated within the
strategy and checks were built in to keep traffic volume towards
the low end of the scale. This was a sustainable solution as the
financial implications for the client were reduced, as was the
need to deal with transport issues in the future.
Other features to reduce the volume of traffic onto the site
were included within the strategy, including a ‘car club’, which
would offer financial incentives for car-sharing, and a car
rental scheme which would be available within the site itself.
As well as reducing the volume of traffic accessing the site,
this would mean fewer car parking facilities were necessary
onsite and free up more land for potential development.
Royal Haskoning used expert techniques to model a range of
scenarios forecasting differing transport methods required by
business, leisure and residential site users. Their analysis was
used to find ways to generate revenue by using the site’s travel
plan measures to guarantee funds for dealing with future
issues. Accurately predicting likely transport outcomes and
how they could be managed sustainably, meant that building
large car parks at the outset could be avoided.
The planning application for Chesterfield Waterside received a
resolution to grant planning approval in April 2010, subject to the
completion of legal agreements and the initial construction works
for the new canal basin have been completed. The detailed design
and then construction of buildings and infrastructure is due to
begin after Planning Reserved Matters Approval is granted for
aspects of the site subject to planning conditions. It is estimated
that the site will take between 10-15 years to complete but
Chesterfield Waterside will then become a visually impressive,
thriving and successful new part of Chesterfield centre.
1042-cs-w-1011-Chesterfield Waterside-V01
David Barker
T: +44 (0)161 236 1018
E: d.barker@royalhaskoning.com
www.royalhaskoning.co.uk