Avenues

Privacy Statement

City Deal Stakeholders

Get in Touch

Overview

The largest project of its kind in the UK with an investment of £115m, the Avenues Programme is expected to deliver the Avenues treatment at various suitable locations across Glasgow City Centre and fringes. These areas will be completely transformed through the delivery of an integrated network of continuous pedestrian and cycle routes - with people at the very heart of their design.

The "Core Avenues" have been broadly sub-divided into 3 blocks of activity (Blocks A, B, and D), and will be delivered through City Deal investment over the period to 2027/28.

In addition to the Avenues Programme, Glasgow City Council has successfully secured Sustrans funding (Places for Everyone) to deliver the four additional Avenues grouped together in the new Block S.

The Avenues Programme will reshape the city centre to protect and prioritise space for active travel, improve connectivity, introduce sustainable green infrastructure and improve the way public transport is accommodated.

Specific improvements will include:

Green/blue infrastructure (such as street trees, planting and Rain Gardens)
Enhanced and widened footways
Single surface crossing points
Segregated cycle lanes
Reduced street clutter
Intelligent Street Lighting (ISL) and improved lighting features

Consultation

There are no current consultations at this time.

Past Consultation

Initial public consultations have already taken place for:

Cowcaddens Road and Dobbie's Loan - Concept Design Proposals October 2022
South Portland Street August 2022
Glassford Street/Stockwell Street Avenues - February 2020
Renfrew Street, Killermont Street and North Hanover Street - Summer 2019
Elmbank Street and Holland Street - Summer 2019
Sauchiehall Street Precinct, Cambridge Street and New City Road (the 'Underline) - Autumn 2018
Argyle Street, Trongate and Dixon Street - Summer 2018

You can view all the initial design proposals for all of these streets here.

Project Progress

Holland Street/Pitt Street Avenue Construction

Holland Street/Pitt Street St constructions works have commenced with completion expected in the summer of 2024. The works include:

Wider footways constructed with natural stone.
A two-way segregated cycleway on Pitt St that will connect with existing cycleways on Sauchiehall Street and Waterloo Street.
An 'avenue' of tress on the western side of Holland Street.
Further trees on West Regent Street.
Raingardens on West George Street and West Regent Street that will include soft landscaping and assist with surface water drainage.

Sauchiehall Street/Charing Cross and Rose Street Pilot

Sauchiehall Street between Charing Cross and Rose Street is the pilot project for the overall Avenues programme. Construction work commenced in 2018 and is now complete.

Other Avenues will be progressed in phases between now and 2028.

A map showing the overall Avenues network of individual streets can be downloaded from the Related Documents section on this page.

Sauchiehall Street Precinct/Cambridge St Avenue

The Sauchiehall Street Precinct and Cambridge St Avenues commenced on site in September 2023 and will complete in Summer 2024.

The Sauchiehall Street Precinct extends from the junction of Rose Street to West Nile Street and will act as a continuation of the Sauchiehall Street Avenue pilot that was completed late 2019. The existing Precinct is primarily retail which has been in decline for several years, further impacted by recent world events. The upgrading of the public realm will assist in the regeneration of a key retail destination while also ensuring a key gateway to the city centre is fit for purpose.

As part of the improvements to Sauchiehall Street Precinct the existing trees were to be felled and this has now taken place. The trees that have been felled on Sauchiehall Precinct between Rose Street and West Nile Street have been in place for over 20 years and unfortunately were not planted in a way that sustained their healthy development and has resulted in their stunted growth and failure. Some have already died and have been removed on Health & Safety grounds as they posed a risk to the public in terms of sudden falls during strong winds.

The normal development of trees of that age has been negatively impacted due to the restrictive conditions for root development, which has affected the normal growth of the trees making them susceptible to pests, diseases and disorders and thus shortening their lifespan.

The public realm works on Sauchiehall Precinct will see the planting of 27 semi-mature trees of varying species, similar to those planted at the top end of Sauchiehall Street in 2018/19. The introduction of semi-mature trees, instead of saplings, will have a more immediate visual impact on the Precinct once all of the public realm works are complete. These trees will be planted in a way that ensures they have sufficient rooting zones thereby encouraging healthy growth and canopies, and also ensuring the trees longevity. The introduction of varying species also helps protect again spread of pests, diseases and disorders. The tree pits will also have a sustainable drainage function taking surface water runoff from the surrounding footway.

The Cambridge St Avenue has a clear interface with both the Sauchiehall Street Avenue pilot and Sauchiehall Street Precinct. It is a gateway to Sauchiehall Street and is primarily bound by a mixture of retail units, commercial office space, and some dense residential neighbourhoods to the west and north. The delivery of Cambridge St Avenue will form the first section of the Underline, which will eventually provide connections between the city centre, former Stow College and the Sustrans funded Connecting Woodside active travel project and is intended to re-establish connections between the west end and the city centre via New City Road.