About

The ongoing requalification of Rue Garibaldi in Lyon represents a significant example of contemporary urban transformation within a dense European metropolis. Led by the Métropole de Lyon in collaboration with SPL Lyon Part Dieu, the project retrofits a mid twentieth century arterial roadway originally conceived as a motorway style urban corridor into a multimodal, climate adaptive boulevard prioritising public space, ecological performance and active mobility.

The intervention forms part of the wider Plan Part Dieu regeneration strategy and aligns with metropolitan planning frameworks including the Plan Local d’Urbanisme et de l’Habitat (PLU-H), the Plan d’Aménagement et de Développement Durable (PADD), and the Voies Lyonnaises cycling network within the 2021–2026 metropolitan investment programme. Landscape design is led by Alain Marguerit together with Ateliers des Paysages. The project requalifies approximately 2.7 kilometres of a north south corridor linking Lyon’s 3rd, 6th and 7th arrondissements. Its current phase, extending between Rue d’Arménie and Grande Rue de la Guillotière, restructures the avenue through a substantial reduction in automobile infrastructure, reducing traffic lanes from five to two while introducing segregated cycleways, dedicated public transport lanes and enlarged pedestrian areas.

Environmental measures include the planting of 156 additional trees, the introduction of vegetated strips and permeable surfaces, and the implementation of sustainable drainage systems designed to mitigate urban heat island effects and improve stormwater management. A central morphological operation involves the removal of the former “trémie” underpass, whose grade separation had reinforced the avenue’s infrastructural barrier effect. Re-establishing the street at ground level restores transversal continuity between neighbourhoods and repositions Rue Garibaldi as a civic and ecological urban axis rather than a purely traffic oriented corridor.

Adjacent public spaces, including Place Rachais and Place Stalingrad, are simultaneously being re landscaped to accommodate social activity, biodiversity and climate adaptation. From an institutional perspective, the project illustrates a model of coordinated metropolitan governance involving the Métropole de Lyon, the Ville de Lyon and environmental agencies such as the Agence de l’eau Rhône Méditerranée Corse. Construction is being implemented in phases in order to maintain urban continuity during works, with overall completion projected for 2026.