Strategies to regenerate urban streetscape disturbes by road widening programmes: a study with special reference to Colombo-Galle main road

Abstract

During the past few decades there had been and immense improvement of the mobility of people in Sri Lanka. The increase of vehicles on road had been phenomenal. So that the existing infrastructure was unable to cope with the demand. One of the major impacts of this phenomenon was upon the street net work, which needed to be expanded in order to accommodate the vehicular and pedestrian movements. This had a major impact upon the streetscapes and the street life. The aim of this study is first to identify the constituents of a street and study in detail the impact caused by the road widening process upon them. With this understanding the study aims to identify the possible strategies to recreate urban streetscapes by regenerating the essence of the character of what was existing. Four different strategies are identified in this regard. A case study conducted on Galle road reveals the different ways in which these four strategies have been implemented in different situations. The study concludes by highlighting the necessity of identifying Architectural concerns, engineering concerns and more importantly are concerns in order to satisfy the objectives of all parties involved or affected by road widening programme.