St Kilda Foreshore Promenade

The St Kilda Foreshore Promenade is a significant urban design project within the City if Port Phillip's St Kilda's Edge program. The project involved the reconstruction and upgrade of the existing foreshore promenade between St Kilda Pier and Brookes Jetty.

The design for the St Kilda Foreshore Promenade was prepared by Jackson Clements Burrowsand Site Office in collaboration with the City of Port Phillip.

The original promenade was no longer able to support the demands of increasing numbers of visitors to the city. The objective of the project was to renew the ageing infrastructure in order to improve accessibility and support a more diverse and sustainable use of the foreshore.

The promenade ranges from 8 to 14 meters and will comfortably support pedestrians, cyclists and skaters in a new shared environment. Commuter cyclists can utilise proposed dedicated on- road bike lanes along Jacka Boulevard.

The works commenced in April 2007 and completed in August 2008.

A shared zone for all users

The St Kilda Foreshore Promenade is unique in that it is both a destination and a major bicycle route along the foreshore. In most circumstances delineated (separated) pedestrian and bicycle paths work well and minimise conflict between users.

However, at St Kilda there are a huge number of pedestrians and cyclists which cross the path at right angles as they access the beach or move between restaurants, cafes and the pedestrian path. Under these circumstances the delineated path system breaks down and results in more conflicts and accidents.

International precedents which were studied as part of the design for the St Kilda Foreshore Promenade identified that the current 'best practice' under these circumstances is to create shared spaces with minimal signage where pedestrians, cyclists and skaters are aware of sharing the path with other users and modify their behaviour accordingly. The new promenade has an extremely generous width (up to 14 m) which provides ample space for cyclists and pedestrians to sight and navigate around each other without conflict.

In addition to this, the Foreshore Connections project has will provide safe dedicated on-road bicycle lanes on Jacka Bvd to provide the most efficient route for commuter and training cyclists. This reduction in faster bicycle traffic, along with the design of the promenade aims to discourage cyclists from travelling at speed along the foreshore path between Brookes Jetty/ Shakespeare Grove and Cowderoy St.

The City of Port Phillip will be monitoring incidents over coming years to determine whether this new strategy has been successful. Early feedback has been extremely positive.

Foreshore Connections Program

Improving access to adjoining road connections and open spaces will be facilitated through the St Kilda Foreshore Connections group of projects. The Foreshore Connections program includes pedestrian and cyclist connections to the end of Fitzroy Street, an on road cyclist lane on Beaconsfield Parade and Jacka Boulevard, a raised platform tram stop adjacent to Cleve Gardens and off road bike lanes up the Northern side of Fitzroy Street, linking into the Albert Park track.

For more information

Fore further information relating to this project, please contact Sophie Beasley, Project Manager Landscape and Urban Design 9209 6777 or sbeasley@portphillip.vic.gov.au.

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