Civic Engineers formed and led a multi-disciplinary team to undertake outline design of a new east-west active travel link along Academy Street in Inverness city centre, including connections to the three railway station access/egress points via Station Square, Strothers Lane and Falcon Square, and the connection to the bus station at Farraline Park.

Works undertaken include analysis of existing walking and cycling behaviours; engagement with key stakeholders, including Abelio Scotrail, taxi and bus operators, community groups and local businesses; design of new public realm; and a traffic impact analysis of the scheme proposals.

Over the course of the project we delivered a number of focused stakeholder and public consultation events where plan layouts and computer-generated visualisations were presented and feedback recorded.

As one of the oldest streets in the city, Academy Street has a number of buildings of historic importance; many of which are of listed status. The setting of these buildings was carefully considered during the design and particularly in the selection of the materials palette. Additionally, it was recognised that access to the covered Victorian Market was hampered by poor wayfinding provision and pedestrian crossing facilities from the railway station, so this became central to the proposals.

Throughout the process we undertook close collaboration with HITRANS and Highland Council officers to explore a number of potential design options, with consideration of low-cost interventions through to a full re-allocation of space to include segregated cycling provision, narrowed carriageways and improved pedestrian facilities.

The final deliverables from the project were a feasibility assessment report which appraised proposals for each active travel corridor and identified preferred options, including visualisation drawings, outline designs and estimated costs for the implementation of the proposed schemes. This was delivered to the client who is now exploring potential funding streams to take the design to the next stage.