Northern alluvial gains streets: new district begins to collect from roads and infrastructure

On the Northern alluvial Vasilievsky Island, the frame of the future area gradually appears. St. Petersburg approved the projects of Lisyansky Street and Highway No. 6 – four-lane roads with sidewalks, bicycle paths and public transport stops.

Lisyansky street should connect Novosmolensk embankment with Kruzenshtern Avenue, Highway No. 6 - Kruzenshtern Avenue with Magistral No. 5. The layout of the Novosmolensk embankment was approved earlier.

Even before the construction of residential buildings, the main transport links of the future district are formed here. Moreover, the transport system is immediately designed comprehensively: the movement of buses is provided along new streets, stops will appear for them, sidewalks and bicycle paths are laid in parallel.

Commenting on the new projects, Governor Alexander Beglov formulated the principle by which the city intends to develop the territory: housing and roads should appear synchronously so that new neighborhoods do not become cut off from the rest of St. Petersburg.

For fast-growing areas, this is one of the most painful issues. St. Petersburg already knows examples when residential neighborhoods were populated faster than roads, schools, kindergartens and polyclinics appeared around them. On the Northern Alley, the LSR Group, which is engaged in the development of the location, tries to link these elements at the stage of the formation of the territory.

The road network is only one element of the future. Along with housing there are schools, kindergartens and medical institutions. A separate place is occupied by parks, walking and cycling routes, public spaces and the shore of the Gulf of Finland.

For a territory of this scale, it is the relationship of these elements that is important. The school should be located where it is convenient to walk from residential areas, public transport should work together with the street network, green spaces should connect different parts of the area, and the waterfront should be part of everyday routes, not an isolated walking area near the water.

The northern lap in this regard is a rare task for the developer. It is not enough to build a new residential complex into the existing urban environment: this environment itself has to be created from scratch.

The experience of integrated development of large territories is especially important for such work. The LSR Group already has one. One of the most illustrative examples is the Moscow ZILART, created on the site of the former industrial zone. Together with residential areas, there was its own street network, schools, walking routes, public spaces and cultural infrastructure - up to the museum and exhibition center.

The Northern Allowance develops in different conditions and has its own scale, but the task is in many ways similar: from the very beginning to assemble a full-fledged urban area, where different life scenarios work together, rather than being added to housing as the need arises.

To understand why the infrastructure to lay in advance, you can literally next door.

A few years ago, the Southern Allowance was perceived primarily as an actively developing new territory. One of the main questions of residents was related to when housing will catch up with the necessary urban facilities.

In recent years, schools and kindergartens have appeared here. This autumn, a new polyclinic complex was launched, which LSR Group built and transferred to St. Petersburg. For Vasilievsky Island, its opening was a separate event: the district polyclinic was not built here from scratch for about half a century.

The space outside of social institutions has also changed. The linear park has become one of the usual walking routes of the western part of Vasilievsky Island, there is a more convenient access to the water, and the recess itself has its meeting places and local attractions.

The fact that a few years ago it was necessary to create as the district grew, can be taken into account in the design of the Northern Alley.

That is why the approval of new streets is important to consider together with other plans for the territory. Next to future houses, the contours of the transport network appear in advance, social facilities, green spaces and routes along the water are defined. This approach avoids a situation where a full-fledged city has to be completed around already inhabited houses.

For the Northern Allowance, this is now one of the key tasks: to make sure that, together with the first quarters, the new part of Vasilievsky has the urban framework necessary for life.