Have Your Streetscape and Treat it Too!
September 28, 2020
BETA’s Broadway Streetscape project in Newport, Rhode Island was recently featured in the APWA Reporter. BETA’s design balances integrated stormwater treatment with a multitude of competing interests for space in an urban environment.
“There’s not enough room.” “It’s too expensive.” “These regulations were not meant for situations like ours.” If you have ever been a part of a stakeholder project, you may know how difficult it can be to wrangle competing interests, the project vision, and compliance with federal and state regulations. A public forum aimed at shaping the vision of a project can quickly lead to a list of “wants” and “needs” as long as a CVS receipt. Weeding out the necessary from the frivolous leaves stakeholders with the daunting task of managing expectations while prioritizing necessities to balance the economic development, placemaking, and ancillary benefits of a project’s aesthetics. On top of that, municipalities and designers are faced with the difficult task of delivering projects on time and on budget while also meeting a multitude of federal and state regulations and standards such as ADA, MUTCD, and stormwater management requirements.
In Newport, Rhode Island, a joint project between the City and the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) to construct the Broadway Streetscape Project incorporated innovative ideas to engrain stormwater treatment with other competing interests molded into the same space, while not compromising the quality of the project.