Revision of the Transport Plans and Designs for Harbin’s New CBD

Posted: 02 Jun 2008

Related to: Guangzhou BRT, Revitalizing City Centers, China
Contributed by: Karl Fjellstrom, ITDP

Chinese cities are undergoing a construction boom of a scale unprecendented in human history, with many building whole new central business districts (CBDs). The road network planning in these new urban areas often focuses on facilitating longer trips by private car and neglects shorter trips by pedestrians and cyclists, while not providing bus priority measures. Negative impacts on congestion, streetscapes and overall attractiveness of the new CBDs are already being felt in many cities.

During the second half of 2007, ITDP led an Asian Development Bank-funded sustainable transport study in Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province in northern China, and Changzhou in Jiangsu Province. Our close partners, the Guangzhou Municipal Technology Development Corp (GMTDC) and Nelson Nygaard, also provided critical input to these studies. (An electronic copy of these studies is available upon request - please use the feedback form at www.itdp-china.org.)


Cover page of the Harbin new CBD report

Following this study, which made a deep impression in Harbin and convinced authorities that a new approach was needed to their ongoing new CBD designs, the Harbin ‘Qunli’ new Central Business District project office hired ITDP, GMTDC and Nelson Nygaard to revise the transportation aspects of the new CBD, which is in the very early stages of road construction. This work, completed over a two month period in early 2008, mainly involved:

• extensively revising the road and intersection designs and cross-sections in the form of detailed AutoCAD designs for the major roads,
• revising the standard cross-section designs for the roads,
• revising the road network planning, and
• providing detailed designs for future BRT station space requirements and configurations as well as how to plan for and leave the space for future BRT implementation.

Somewhat less detailed recommendations were also provided in the areas of parking facilities and secondary road network planning and design in the study area.


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The Harbin Qunli new CBD study area, located to the southwest of the city center, covering around 11 square kilometers.


Typical major intersection: the earlier design (Source: GMTDC/Nelson Nygaard/ITDP)


Typical major intersection: the revised design. Note the modified turning radii, space allocated for future BRT implementation, and continuous bike lanes through the intersection. (Source: GMTDC/Nelson Nygaard/ITDP)

Detailed designs were formulated for three main roads in the new CBD, along with standard cross-sections for a number of different road types. Designs and renderings of future BRT stations were included, to ensure that adequate space is left for future BRT implementation without requiring road widening or reconstruction of the entire road right-of-way.


Future BRT station rendering for Kang’An Road, the major road through the new CBD (Source: GMTDC/Nelson Nygaard/ITDP)

The key design recommendations of the report were approved during a review meeting in February 2008, construction specifications have been changed, and the revised designs are currently being implemented, including the provision of space required for future BRT implementation.