Arsenal kicks off the season in new home - Steer Davies Gleave

Arsenal kicks off the season in new homeArsenal Football Club has a promising lineup for the 2006/7 season with Thierry Henryfirmly on side to lead a talented young team,30 million supporters worldwide and abrand new stadium with 60,000 seats, 150executive boxes, a spacious pitch and stateof-the-artfacilities. Even more impressiveis that the new Emirates Stadium wascompleted two weeks ahead of schedule and– by all accounts on budget at £390 million.Needless to say, a lot of planning and hardwork had gone into the project to see theDennis Bergkamp testimonial successfullyopen the stadium on the 22nd July 2006.Steer Davies Gleave has been working withArsenal Football Club continuously since2000 on all areas of transport, when weinitially helped prepare and submit the firstset of planning applications for the newstadium and associated development.It was important to the club that thenew stadium remained in the Islingtonneighbourhood – its home since 1913.However, as a high density residentialarea, one of the key targets was to ensurethat no more than 20% of spectatorjourneys into the local area would be byprivate car. This is by far the lowest levelof car use for travel to any Premiershipstadium, which we aim to achievethrough innovative measures included inthe Stadium Travel Plan, developed inpartnership with Transport for London,Islington Council, Metropolitan Police,First Capital Connect (Great Northern)and the Stadium Liaison Committee. Inaddition, we have planned and supervisedthe implementation of a massive EventDay Parking Scheme, which restricts onstreetparking in a third of the borough– an area covering 30,000 dwellings.Early indications from the initial stadiumuse already suggest that we will meet– and even exceed – this tough target.Because of the sheer number of peoplethat will descend onto the ground onmatch and event days, it was essentialto thoroughly assess crowd and trafficflow issues both within the stadium andin the adjacent street network. To helpensure effective control of the crowds we:ttProvided input on the stadium design,which included the planning, capacityand accessibility assessment andspecification of the two massivepedestrian overbridges across therailway lines to the east of the stadium.Planned and designed crowdmanagement measures at keypedestrian crossing locations and themain local rail and tube stations.tttPrepared the unique Local AreaManagement Plan that identifiesand outlines all the procedures tobe followed to manage the crowdflows and vehicle movements inthe vicinity of the stadium.Designed the vehicle and pedestrianconnections between the EmiratesStadium and surrounding podiumlevel and the adjacent road networkincluding the new roundabout inthe plaza area to the southof the stadium.Planned and designed local wayfindingsignage and CCTV coverage.We have also been working closely withTransport for London, the MetropolitanPolice and Islington Council todeliver a transport communicationstrategy for the stadium.As a new season gets underway,we are proud to have played apart in delivering a beautiful newstadium for the beautiful game.For more information contactTim Spencert +44 (0)20 7919 8500e tim.spencer@sdgworld.net11