“Valuable solutions to more responsibly rethink human activities around congested urban areas”
Regional Jury Report – Asia Pacific
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Urban Movement in Uganda
Street redesign cross section showing the NMT improvements along the streets e.g. inclusion of sitting areas, landscaping, the physical separation between motorized traffic and NMT traffic, street lighting. The walkways have been sized to adequately accommodate the large numbers of pedestrians in line with standards specified in the Highway Capacity Manual 2000. Motorized traffic has been separated from the NMT by physical barriers to avoiding conflict. The corridor has been beautified.
Last updated: November 13, 2021 Eclepens, Switzerland
Project description by jury
Traffic congestion in Kampala, like in most sub-Saharan cities, is acknowledged as a costly, dangerous and suboptimal aspect of African urban life. Inadequate road infrastructure poses serious health issues for both pedestrians and drivers, while impacting on the entire economic system through logistics inefficiency and lost time caused by traffic jams. This proposal suggests a multi-modal transport scheme for Kampala that blends road engineering and landscape design to improve current transport infrastructure and overall livability of the city.
Streets are redesigned to adequately accommodate vehicular traffic while designating generous surfaces for clearly identified pedestrian and bicycle paths. Some key areas become pedestrianized and are entirely closed to vehicular traffic. The intervention promotes sustainable mobility, more organized business activities, and designated areas for street vending and plazas. Urban furniture, streetlights and an appropriate landscape design contribute to the pleasant amenity of the pedestrian zones. New small constructions are conceived to serve as shelters along footpaths or train platforms. Beyond enhancing urban mobility, this project enables more fluid motorized traffic flows to sensibly improve environmental sustainability by minimizing the concentration of vehicles. In addition to reducing CO2 emissions and noise levels, the newly organized traffic configuration also positively impacts the commercial and urban center to deliver a more appealing character for tourists.
Jury appraisal
The Holcim Awards jury Middle East Africa acknowledged the relevance of the project for its context in Uganda, as well as for many African countries that suffer from similar problems caused by a poorly organized and overloaded urban transport infrastructure. The impressive amount of detail provided by the author indicates a sensitivity that goes beyond providing new inputs of a purely utilitarian nature. The proposal offers valuable solutions to more responsibly rethink human activities that gravitate around congested urban areas.