St James’ Quarter

Project Overview

£1bn retail-led, mixed-use development project which is leading the regeneration of the east end of Edinburgh. In addition to the commercial aspects of the development, significant areas of public realm have been delivered which include public squares, event space, high quality segregated walk/cycle routes and multi-modal active travel/(bus/tram) transport hubs.

The Challenge

To take a £1bn retail led regeneration project in the heart of Edinburgh City Centre from concept, through planning and design to implementation.

The Solution

Our transport planning and civil and structural engineering teams have been involved in the project from the initial concept and planning stages, through the full technical approval process and then to the construction phase. We combined our excellent technical skills with our knowledge the city, building on our long-established relationship with the City Council to establish working groups which led the team through the various design and statutory approvals processes.

Primary Services

• Multi-modal access strategy
• Design of active and public transport infrastructure
• Traffic modelling and engineering
• Road design
• Development planning
• Strategic advice and planning
• Behaviour change and travel planning
• Civil and structural engineering
• Stakeholder engagement

The Result & Benefit to Client

Sweco developed multi-modal design solutions which have reclaimed large areas of carriageway for pedestrians and cyclists, future proofed for Edinburgh Tram, incorporated bus infrastructure and retained sufficient traffic capacity to allow the city to function. In addition to this, large areas of new high-quality public realm have been created, providing space within the city environment for people to spend time, host events and move around.

We combined our technical expertise, engagement skills and established relationships to help convince the City that it was ok to close a strategic traffic route for a year. In doing this we significantly shortened part of the construction programme, minimised disruption to the City and allowed a significant area of public realm to be delivered early in the programme, along with utilities upgrades.