Green Carpet – A2 Maastricht wins Infra Design Association Award – VIO Prijs 2017
The Infra Design Association – VIO (Vereniging Infra Ontwerp) – is an association contributing to the realization of better highway infrastructure by enhancing the practice of the infra-designer in the areas of knowledge, education, innovation and process. Aiming to continuously develop, exchange and reinforce their knowledge and competency in order to respond adequately to the quickly-evolving societal requirements related to functionality, safety, integrality and sustainability of infrastructure projects in the Benelux countries, they organise an annual Infra Design Association Award (VIO Prijs) to provide an international podium for extraordinarily successful infrastructure projects.
On April 20, this year’s VIO day, the association announced the project A2 Maastricht – Green Carpet (Groene Loper A2) as winner of the 2017 VIO Prijs and therefore the project is officially the ’Infra Design of the Year’.
In April the jury has evaluated 5 large-scale infrastructure entries including:
- N31 bicycle bridge across the Gent-Oostende at Bruges submitted by AWV
- Green Carpet (Groene Loper ) A2 Maastricht submitted by Projectbureau A2
- Renovation of Velsertunnel submitted by RWS
- N211 submitted by Anteagroep
- A27/A1 project extension, submitted by 3Angle
The evaluation criteria include: Flow, Safety, Sustainability, Durability, Cost-Efficiency, Design Process, Innovation, Originality, Complexity and Lifecycle. We are proud that West 8 and Humblé Architecten’s A2 Maastricht project was declared this year’s winner.
The Green Carpet forms the heart of our plan, which arises from our conviction that the space atop the tunnel deserves not only an urban approach in the form of a boulevard, but even more importantly a scenic approach in the form of a green, intimate avenue. The Green Carpet will change the current A2 zone into a connecting space for the city and will also extend beyond the space atop the tunnel, twisting from north to south through the city like a green ribbon running from the Ceramic District to deep into the Country Estate zone. The route will relink many areas of the city. Our design gives the ‘ribbon’ its green character by planting thousands of linden trees next to each other in rows four to eight trees wide. This will give the avenue an allure and a atmosphere that exudes peace, space, and vitality.
The Stacked tunnel, which was completed in the beginning of 2017, not only improves the area with better air, noise, and scenic quality, it also handles larger traffic volumes, leaving the aboveground traffic to mainly pedestrians and cyclists. The identity of Maastricht is also enhanced by the two unique city entrances. As the same time, the city’s real estate redevelopment market has also received a boost since the accessibility and living quality of the A2 Country Estate zone area will be improved enormously when the project reaches completion in 2019.
Jury comments, “The A2 Maastricht has the highest score and scores overall particularly high on 2 key areas, namely liveability and complexity.”
For over 6.5 years, the project team has worked together closely on seeking the best traffic-based solutions in order to maximize living quality of the city of Maastricht. West 8, as urban planner and landscape architect of the project, worked together with Humblé Architecten since the beginning of competition in 2009. After the compeition, we worked alongside the Projectbureau A2, with other collaborators including Ballast Nedam, Strukton, Arcadis, dGmR and Bex* Communication, forming namely the ‘Avenue2 consortium’ for the execution of the project. Representing the project team, Mark de Vries, technical manager at Strukton and Zoran Kenjic, Adviser Road and Traffic Safety at the A2 Maastricht project office, recevied the award in honor during the award ceremony.
More information of the project can be found at the official project website here, or here at the right column of this page are downloadable PDF brochures of the project.
