Road reconstruction provided an opportunity to combine Low Impact Design with traffic calming, enhanced mobility, beautification, and flood mitigation.
Asakura Robinson Company provided landscape architecture services for a Green Road Design that incorporates Low Impact Development features such as roadside plantings and engineered soil mixes that filter stormwater to meet stormwater quality goals.
As part of a larger effort to improve vehicular and pedestrian mobility in the Texas Medical Center, the reconstruction of Almeda Road between S. MacGregor and Old Spanish Trail accommodates future traffic demands while also meeting pedestrian and bicyclist needs.
To see implementation through, Asakura Robinson is providing post-construction services to measure how LID features are performing.
The roadway was designed as a pilot project for Green Road Design with Low Impact Development (LID) features requiring roadside plantings and engineered soil mixes that filter stormwater to meet stormwater quality goals. The general project scope allowed for the reconstruction of the existing concrete roadway and grade separations over Brays Bayou at Almeda and S. MacGregor with curbs, sidewalks, street lighting, and underground utilities.
Completed in April 2018 and currently in the maintenance phase, this project helped to build capacity and existing strengths in the community because of efforts to beautify, calm traffic, and mitigate flooding. The new design features a narrowed central median expanding the four lane roadway to six lanes with a varying ROW. This new design not only improves traffic flow at signalized intersections but will also provide additional green space for pedestrians and bicyclists. A potential 10’ wide bikeway is proposed along one side of the ROW adjacent to Hermann Park and the VA Hospital.
