Garitage Park

Preliminary Study for Bicycle and Pedestrian Connection between Garitage Park and Business Park Sofia Metro Station

Garitage Park is a major mixed-use urban development located in the southern parts of Sofia. It’s planned to provide a variety of office and residential spaces, a sports hall, a school, a park with playgrounds and sports facilities, and other services. Garitage Park is the first mixed-use development project in Central and Eastern Europe with an Excellent Final Certificate according to the International Scheme of BREEAM Communities 2012 for social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Based on this and with the vision to deliver a comfortable and safe urban environment for its future residents and guests, the Garitage Park Board reached out to our team with a request to find a solution for a new bicycle and pedestrian connection to the nearby metro station – Business Park Sofia.

The preliminary study aims to promote sustainable forms of urban mobility on the territory of “Mladost 4” housing estate and to improve access to the existing bicycle and pedestrian network around the “Okolovrasten pat” Blvd. (the ring road).

The study covers the connection between Garitage Park and Business Park Sofia metro station including:

• “Aleksandar Malinov” Blvd. between Business Park Sofia metro station and the bridges located over the “Okolovrasten pat” Blvd. (the ring road)
• Eastern bridge – extension of “Aleksandar Malinov” Blvd. towards “Vitoshki kambani” St.
• Western bridge – extension of “Aleksandar Malinov” Blvd. towards “Racho Petkov Kazandzhiyata” St.

In April 2018 place.make’s team conducted a survey that gave us an insight into how people use and move through the streets around Garitage Park. The survey shows a significant share of pedestrians on the eastern bridge and on “Aleksandar Malinov” Blvd. between Business Park Sofia metro station and the territories south of “Okolovrasten pat” Blvd. (the ring road). At rush hour some of the pedestrians are forced to use the traffic lane which indicates insufficient width of the sidewalk and results in dangerous walking conditions. During the construction of the western bridge, there was no sidewalk included in the project but the urban developments south of “Okolovrasten pat” Blvd. (the ring road) make the bridge attractive to pedestrians as it is the shortest connection to the metro station. However, it’s approx. 400 m length has poor and inconvenient conditions for pedestrians with a sidewalk width of less than 1 m including traffic barriers, concrete barriers, and lighting poles. All of the sidewalks in the project area have poor pavement conditions.

In “Mladost 4” housing estate some of the first bicycle tracks in Sofia were built reaching near the Business Park Sofia metro station. However, there is no bicycle lane along “Aleksandar Malinov” Blvd. and the bridges to connect the housing estate and the newly developed office and residential spaces around the Ring Road. At the same time, cyclists cross the busy roadway and sidewalks, which is a prerequisite for conflicts and dangerous situations.

The preliminary study proposes a bicycle and pedestrian connection between Garitage Park and Business Park Sofia metro station that aims to create a comfortable and safe urban environment for alternative forms of mobility. The project develops two-sided one-way bicycle lanes along the eastern bridge, together with extension of both sidewalks by traffic lane width reduction. On “Aleksandar Malinov” Blvd. between the bridges over the Rind Road and Business Park Sofia metro station the project proposes two-sided one-way bicycle lanes on the eastern and western local roads combined with a greenery aside. The third part of the project preserves the western bridge’s width and suggests an extension of its eastern sidewalk (from 1 m to 1.8 m) with a reduction of the three traffic lanes of 0.25 m each.

The project also defines stages for implementation of the proposed measures. The bicycle and pedestrian connection between Garitage Park and Business Park Sofia metro station is the first stage. The next stages include the future development of pedestrian and bicycle routes towards the “Kambanite” park and the existing cycling routes in the “Mladost 4” neighbourhood.