Month: December 2023

The work at Birmingham Children’s Hospital centred on managing vehicle movement within a highly constrained and sensitive setting, where space was limited, pedestrian activity was constant and emergency access had to remain uninterrupted. The project required the redesign of temporary arrangements on Steelhouse Lane, the organisation of overflow ambulance parking and a series of swept path assessments to ensure that ambulances, buses and service vehicles could move safely through a tight urban environment without affecting day-to-day hospital operations.

Civia’s approach combined early on-site assessment with iterative design; sketching and discussing proposals with the client and design team to co-ordinate the buildability and practicability of the proposals in conjunction with site constraints and other designers’ works. Detailed vehicle-tracking simulations were used to refine layouts, resolve conflict points and preserve emergency response capability. 

The final arrangements eased emergency access to the Hospital and achieved project goals, whilst sustaining uninterrupted access for emergency vehicles during the works and minimising impact on the surrounding traffic network.