Humanizing The Highway – A Case Study

This book has two main purposes. The first is to describe the process and strategy by which the Interstate-5 North Coast Corridor Project, a controversial freeway widening project in Southern California, overcame multiple obstacles, gained consensus and came to be championed by the communities, elected officials and the environmental resource agencies. The second and greater purpose is to illustrate the urban design, architectural, and landscape features that were born from the approval process and documented in the Corridor Design Guidelines. Corridor Design Guidelines are a process and tool to define the visual mitigation measures for large regional transportation projects in a way that meets and exceeds the needs of internal and external stakeholders. The Corridor Design Guidelines guide the design and planning of the various physical elements that will affect not only vehicle drivers and passengers, but also those communities surrounding the corridor. This book uses excerpts from the I-5 NCC Project Corridor Design Guidelines as a Case Study to show the development of its freeway corridor design guidelines. Its illustrated steps are applicable to a wide range of large regional corridors with new or reconstruction freeway projects. Additionally, the book uses some examples from around the world to illustrate its message.