New technology will be used to design Enfield Council’s £6bn Meridian Water development to ensure it delivers the maximum benefits to as many people as possible. Jacobs is partnering with Enfield Council to provide program and master plan leadership, technical design and planning advisory services for the development of a
London’s canals have seen in the last forty years a great resurgence, but, at the same time, they have also been used for leisure and alternative living more than their originally intended purpose. The ongoing housing crisis has made many property owners view setting up a home in a floating
New technology will be used to design Enfield Council’s £6bn Meridian Water development to ensure it delivers the maximum benefits to as many people as possible. Jacobs is partnering with Enfield Council to provide program and master plan leadership, technical design and planning advisory services for the development of a new masterplan for Meridian Water. The company is using geodesign technology to make the development sustainable and ensure there is good access to parks, transport links, schools, healthcare, food and jobs ensuring Meridian Water is a truly transformational scheme for the people of Enfield. They showcased their design software in the ‘Meridian Water – Sustainable and Resilient by Design’ presentation given at the Esri 2021 Geodesign Summit which was hosted online between 9-11 February. Details of the presentation can be found in the Jacobs Newsroom at https://www.jacobs.com/newsroom With cities around the world are facing unprecedented levels of change. The usual drivers – a warming climate, rapid population growth, urbanization, and advances in technology have been exacerbated by coronavirus, exposing social inequality and reinforcing the message of how connected our communities are. It means the plans for Meridian Water must have plans in place to ensure it, and its residents, can meet the challenges of the future, head on. Enfield Council’s Leader Cllr Nesil Caliskan, said: “We have always been clear that Meridian Water is more than just a housing development, it is a pathway to jobs, prosperity and a better future for thousands of Enfield residents. But the scheme needs to be resilient and enable the people who live there to rise to future challenges by being resilient and sustainable for many years to come. “Using this approach will enable us to find innovative solutions to the challenges we face in planning this scheme and ensure we have a wealth of data available before we make critical decisions. It will directly benefit the people of Enfield because we will deliver a world class development for them which will be genuinely transformational for our borough.” The Meridian Water redevelopment project is a major £6 billion, 20-year regeneration program led by Enfield Council, bringing 10,000 homes and 6,000 jobs to the borough. Alongside beautiful homes and world-class public spaces and community facilities, the 200-acre development will have its own brand-new railway station – which is already completed, linking commuters to the region. As well as working on the masterplan, Jacobs is also providing client technical advisory service across several disciplines during the design and delivery of over £150 million of strategic infrastructure works to help unlock the Meridian Water site. For more information contact Andrew Golder, Press and New Media Manager, Enfield Council. Tel: 020 8379 5147. Email: Andrew.golder@enfield.gov.uk
London’s canals have seen in the last forty years a great resurgence, but, at the same time, they have also been used for leisure and alternative living more than their originally intended purpose. The ongoing housing crisis has made many property owners view setting up a home in a floating boat a viable option. Ex-industrial areas are continuously being developed and barges are being overlooked as a viable way to transport away construction waste and bring in materials. Two examples of this situation are two large canal-side development projects that could easily incorporate the waterways into their efforts – Enfield Meridian Water Development and Old Oak Park Royal Development Corporation. As HGVs are causing a vastly disproportionate amount of cyclist road deaths, getting freight off the roads would be safer, would reduce traffic and their environmental impact, with water transport only using around a quarter of the energy of an equivalent road journey. A brief glimmer of hope was seen when Stratford was identified as the site for the 2012 Olympics. The area around the proposed park is riddled with canals and backwaters, perfect for heavy freight. Despite promising noises and the building of a new lock at Three Mills, which opened up a route to processing plants along the Thames Estuary, this option was not engaged with in any meaningful way. The long hoped-for revival of waterways freight never happened and with the privatisation of the canals, it seems even further away. Moreover, the Canal and River Trust (CRT), the charity that now managed England and Wales’s canals, does little to encourage waterborne freight. A concerted EU effort has seen a great resurgence in freight borne on inland waterways in mainland Europe, but unfortunately nothing comparable is happening on this side of the Channel. However, this is not due to a lack of options, as the UK has the infrastructure in place already. It is just a matter of using it.
