Broadway Streetscape

The Broadway District in Newport’s downtown is home to Newport City Hall and many shops and restaurants; residents proudly boast that Broadway is “where the locals go”. BETA landscape architects and engineers worked with the Louis Berger Group to design a streetscape improvement project for the City. The streetscape focused on safety improvements for vulnerable road users which included traffic calming and placemaking. BETA helped to develop a design that was contextually specific to the historic nature of the area while also giving the area its own contrasting identity. The team participated in the economic development and planning process which included public presentations and advisory committee “visioning” sessions. BETA’s graphic communications captured the input and conceptualized a vision for the streetscape. BETA helped advance the design concepts generated in the visioning sessions through to the final design.

Safety and traffic calming improvements included roadway narrowing to create wider sidewalks, converting two-way traffic to one-way, bump-out narrowing paired with decorative paver raised crosswalks, cohesive and conspicuous signage, and pedestrian scale decorative lighting. The project also improved placemaking by providing an array of different sidewalk amenities such as pocket parks/parklets, benches, outdoor seating areas for restaurants, decorative pedestrian scale period lighting with efficient LEDs, public transit shelters, exposed aggregate sidewalks with accent paving, and bicycle infrastructure.

Stormwater treatment improvements included urban bio-swales, modular urban bio-swales, and pervious decorative paver sand filter parking areas. The design cleverly incorporated stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) treatments into streetscape elements that keep with the theme of the design and have become focus points of the corridor. The redesigned streetscape completely transformed this local area from a vast expanse of asphalt roadway to a true destination for locals and visitors alike.

This project was recently featured in the APWA Reporter.