Since mid 2016, the parties TBI-ondernemingen Timmermans and Mobilis have started on the construction of the underground bike parking at the railstation and the redevelopment of the Stationsplein in Maastricht. The construction is carried out on behalf of the cooperating parties of Maastricht, Maastricht Bereikbaar, the Province of Limburg, PROrail and NS, and will take about 1.5 years.
The construction has a significant impact on the routing of buses, taxis, cars, bicycles and pedestrians; buses and taxis will continue to drive and some 33,000 people will continue to use the station on a daily basis. Railstation, shops, hotels and restaurants will stay reachable.
To ensure accessibility and to minimize inconvenience, the construction is carried out in phases.
Reason for the realization of the underground bike parking for some 3,000 bike sis the increasing use of bicycles in the city of Maastricht; more parking is needed around the railstation. The realization of the underground parking creates a huge quality impulse of the Stationsplein and Percée; it creates the opportunity to realize an attractive Stationsplein without bicycles and with more free space.
At the beginning of 2015, MTD landscape architects / urban designers was commissioned to draft a layout plan for the Stationsplein and a design for the entrances and the interior of the bike parking. Together with Thomas Kemme architects, this has been developed into a technical design. During the construction, the office also is responsible for the aesthetic and technical supervision of the entrances and interior of the bike parking.
For the preparation of the public space layout plan and the design for the entrances and the interior of the underground bike parking, intensive communication has taken place with the workgroup kwaliteits impuls Wijck, the planning permission department of the Municipality of Maastricht, Bureau of Spoorbouwmeester and the stakeholders PROrail and NS.
The main objective of the public space layout plan is to create a pleasant square, which can serve as a calling card for the city and can make the route from the railstation to the inner city more pleasant, recognizable and safe. Hereby, it is the ambition to maximize the integration of the entrances and light-void to the underground bike parking in the square. The main entrance to the bike parking is situated in the median strip of the Percée and is conceived as a head for this strip. The median strip hereby will retrieve its original purpose for gallivanting and lingering under a leafy canopy of trees. The trees in the median strip are maintained and supplemented.
The main entrance to the underground bicycle and scooter parking is realized in the form of a conveyor belt with a canopy. The 1.0 meter high parapet is robustly shaped and materialized in conjunction with the floor of the public space; arising from it as it where. On the front side, the parapet is shaped like a sofa. Here you will find a nice sitting and meeting spot with the best view of the railstation's main entrance.
The canopy is shaped by means of eight-steel, 5.5-meter-high columns, which refer to the design of the columns of the canopy construction on the platforms of the railstation. They bear a steel canopy with an opening in the middle, which is covered with a slightly convex glass plate featuring a grid of photocells.
A second entrance to the underground bicycle and scooter parking is provided at the Stationsplein. It is situated just aside and in the main direction of the main entrance of the station building. This entrance consists mainly of a 1.0 meter high natural stone parapet and staircase.
An important aim of the layout plan is to enlarge the Stationsplein until it reaches the full width of the station building, as in the original situation. In addition, a staircase is introduced to the main entrance, so that the station building is firmly anchored to the square. It is the intention that all three doors of the main entrance will open and serve as an entrance way. A plateau is laid out around the staircase in the floor of the square, in which the second entrance to the bicycle parking is included.
Square and Percée are materialized in light gray sawn natural stone pebbles in a segment compound; plateau and staircase in (burned) Belgian bluestone tiles.
As an important element in the square, a contemporary version of the light mast, originally set here, is brought back. The two 11 meter high steel masts are represented on either side of the main entrance; more or less at the place where they originally stood.
A new element in the square is the light-void to the underground bicycle garage. It is shaped like a natural stone, circular bench with a round glass window, referring to the planters that Kollhoff positioned here in the 80's. In the glass window, photocells are included in an seemingly random pattern.
The route for the pedestrians between the station and the center of Maastricht is mainly thought over the sidewalks along the façades. Here are all the unnecessary obstacles are removed, just as the side parking in the profile. The sidewalks are approximately 4.0 meters wide and in the final stage are materialized in the typical Maastricht 0.20 x 0.20 meter burned, Belgian bluestone tiles.
