Engineering, environment and design consultancy Sweco has been appointed in a transport planning role for the Edinburgh bioQuarter partnership to prepare for future expansion of the site.
The Edinburgh bioQuarter is a life sciences campus based at the city’s Little France Road and is home to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Queen’s Medical Research Institute and the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine. A number of life science companies are also based at the site’s Building Nine.
The £150 million Royal Hospital for Sick Children and Department of Clinical Neurosciences is currently under development and due to open in spring 2018.
Sweco has worked with Edinburgh bioQuarter since 2009 and this commission will see the company provide a range of transport consultancy services. The company’s transport planning team will prepare a feasibility study leading to the design and implementation of a 3.5 km active travel corridor, build a microsimulation of Edinburgh bioQuarter, develop a travel survey programme covering a number of NHS Lothian sites and coordinate implementation of the travel plan.
Brian Currie, programme director, NHS Lothian on behalf of Edinburgh bioQuarter partners, commented, “We are happy to be working with Sweco as a partnership on this important programme of works at Edinburgh bioQuarter. This work will help to prepare the site for future expansion whilst also encouraging access to, and promotion of, active travel options for those using the site.”
Neil Heggie, technical director at Sweco, added, “We are delighted to be able to provide our expertise on a nationally significant project. We pride ourselves on being able to deliver outstanding transport consultancy services and we look forward to utilising our significant expertise in developing and implementing strategies and infrastructure.
‘’We are particularly proud to be able to continue out longstanding support to the Edinburgh bioQuarter client group.”