Plymouth's half-kilometre-long city centre park has officially opened! The scheme, on which Ridge provided civil and structural engineering services, has transformed a 1950s post-war boulevard into a green, sustainable heart for the city.
Delivering Plymouth’s Better Places Plan
Armada Way forms the centrepiece of Plymouth City Council’s Better Places Plan, funded through the Transforming Cities Fund, and builds on the success of earlier phases at Old Town Street and New George Street, on which we provided engineering services in 2024.
Sustainable drainage central to the design
At the scheme’s core is a sustainable drainage system woven through rain gardens, reed beds and a granite-lined water rill, the first time an ornamental water feature has been combined and integrated with a Sustainable Drainage system. The design reduces peak surface water runoff by 74%, easing pressure on Plymouth’s combined sewer network and helping dramatically reduce overflow events into the sea, and reuses rainwater within the Rill and irrigation system for the new trees and planting. Our team built a complex hydraulic model to ensure the system would perform under real-world conditions, using Autodesk Civil3D and Info Drainage software.
Engineering around a living city centre
Delivering the works in a live city centre, where footfall peaks at over 1 million people a month, brought its own challenges. Excavations uncovered layers of Plymouth’s history, including Victorian tramlines, culverts and a porcelain-tiled underground toilet block, all of which had to be carefully managed alongside ongoing public access and existing services.
A new green space for the city
The completed park retains the city’s mature trees and introduces Europe’s largest city centre play area, alongside new seating, food and beverage spaces, wild meadow planting and an amphitheatre. Accessibility was central to the design, with pavements and kerbs reworked to ensure the space works for all users. Foundations have also been laid for solar tree canopies, which will provide shade and generate renewable energy.
Built for Plymouth’s future growth
The drainage infrastructure is designed with Plymouth’s growth in mind. Repurposed water storage tanks and raingardens lining the new streetscape are built to reduce the load on Plymouth’s combined sewer network to support future planned residential development in the city centre, with the system set to link into a wider citywide surface water network over time.
Much of our engineering work sits beneath the surface, but its impact on Plymouth’s public realm will be felt for generations to come.
For more information, contact Ross Pomery and Will Hudson.
Head to our civil and structural engineering pages.
