Traffic and Environmental Renovation Project of Stadium Road

The project revitalizes stadium road and its surrounding area in Xiling District, Yichang, setting a new standard for urban street improvement. It advances urban street management through a detail-driven approach, using system thinking to coordinate traffic, landscape, public amenities, and commercial activities, creating streets with smooth traffic flow, dynamic urban vitality, contemporary aesthetics, and a well-kept streetscape.

Drawing inspiration from the railway history and the spirit of sports, the project weaves local cultural symbols and sport-related visual elements into the street installations, crosswalks, and other places. Bus stops, for example, reinterpret Yichang’s four major cultural and tourism IPs, turning infrastructure into carriers of city memory and cultural identity. A bold “orange + black + gray-white” palette creates a multifaceted streetscape that blends a sporty atmosphere, contemporary style, and the city’s cultural heritage, with orange injecting sporty vibrancy into the streetscape and black and gray-white setting a steady tone. The project reclaims underused railway land and spaces opened up through wall removal, which are then landscaped with greenery as corner greenbelts and landscape nodes. Existing vegetation is rearranged and supplemented with native, adaptable plants, enhancing green coverage while ensuring landscape stability and plant survival, thus optimizing the area’s ecological environment.

From a functional perspective, road traffic efficiency is enhanced through optimized road cross-sections, improved intersection channelization, expanding bottleneck sections to five lanes, and the introduction of bus bays. Underground infrastructure is also upgraded, with 5.1 km of pipelines renovated and 14 instances of rainwater and sewage misconnections rectified. Porous sand-based water permeable bricks are used to facilitate rainwater drainage, effectively addressing flooding and making previously congested streets smooth and efficient. By embracing participatory design and co-creation, the project engages citizens in shaping the streetscape, establishing a model that can be replicated and adapted for comprehensive urban street improvements in the city center.