While our city boasts of many flyovers, there is a flip side to the development of elevated infrastructure — the creation of dead spaces under these flyovers, which become dirty, unsafe, and are encroached for parking.
The flyover at the Music Academy junction is no exception. Situated at the junction connecting Radhakrishnan Salai and TTK Road, it is one of the busiest intersections, and fields a large volume of pedestrian and vehicular traffic through the day.
Those who commute through this area regularly would have seen that pedestrian infrastructure is almost non-existent. Extremely narrow footpaths line Music Academy as well as the CSI Church situated diagonally opposite. The lack of ‘stop’ lines for vehicles and the absence of demarcated crossings and pedestrian refuges make this junction a highly dangerous zone for pedestrians.
Such inefficient planning causes traffic congestion and, as with most flyovers, the space below it remains unutilised.
For the first time, the Corporation of Chennai (CoC) is initiating a project to address this issue, which will not only aim to set right pedestrian-vehicular conflicts, but also enhance the utility of the dead space underneath. Supported by the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) and Chennai City Connect (CCC), the roughly Rs. 1.85 crore project is likely to be completed in three months, says a CoC official. “Widening footpaths, re-designing central medians, and building refuge islands will be the main focus. Work will be done at night to ensure minimum disruption to traffic,” he says.
Before this particular flyover was chosen, CCC commissioned a few architects to re-envision certain public spaces — the Music Academy, Chetpet Lake, Pallikaranai marsh and dump yard, Egmore-Pantheon Road river area, and the beach front in North Chennai.
Raj Cherubal of CCC says, “Many public spaces are being revamped in the city and the success of this project will play a crucial role for future projects. The western side of the Marina beach is seeing many changes, a project to widen footpaths has begun on NSC Bose Road, Mylapore is being redesigned, and there are ongoing studies to revamp T. Nagar as well.”
Designed by KSM Architects, the streets around the intersection will now have wide, safe and continuous footpaths. Siddharth Thyagarajan, architect, KSM Architects, says, “The footpaths will be maintained at the same level, which will make walking easier and also provide easy access to the disabled. Bollards will be placed along all pedestrian refuges and traffic islands, and this will control the entry of vehicles. Dedicated vehicular lanes will facilitate smooth traffic flow.”
In March this year, the traffic police worked with architects and NGOs to test this new design. Using traffic cones and temporary barricades, the traffic police team, led by Additional Commissioner Thamarai Kannan conducted a trial run of sorts and, based on this, slight modifications were made to the design.
Aswathy Dilip, a senior associate at ITDP, says this site test was extremely useful for mitigating doubts that the traffic police had with regard to the design. “As the carriageway is obstructed by trees etc., the police agreed to widen the footpaths to 2.5m, while the carriageways would be reduced to an average width of 5.5m,” she says. The medians and additional refuge islands will also be extended keeping in mind the safety of pedestrians.
Along with traffic improvements, the design also looks at how the area under the flyover can be used for public activity. “By reclaiming space from parking, the design makes space for public facilities such as toilets and ambulance bays under the flyover. At night, this space is dark and unsafe. To address this, better lighting will be provided as part of the design,” adds Thyagarajan.
By using the columns of the flyover as art canvasses and making space for art installations, paintings and sculptures, the design strives to reflect the city’s rich cultural heritage. ITDP is currently in the process of collaborating with city-based artists for this.
Interested artists can contact ITDP at aswathy.dilip@itdp.org
