Integrating Value Engineering and Context-Sensitive Solutions: The St. Clair Avenue West Transit Improvements Project

The designers of transportation infrastructures are increasingly using the term “context-sensitive design” (CSD) or the broader term “context-sensitive solutions” (CSSs) to refer to a design process that strives to be more cognizant of its surrounding environment. Transportation infrastructures, especially in urban environments, are part of a much larger urban ecology that consists of a complex set of natural and human-made systems. As such, design guidelines that solely address engineering and safety considerations have proved themselves incapable of delivering street designs that respond to the functional requirements of the multitude of stakeholders within urban environments. Analysis of these requirements is a necessary first step for any successful CSD–CSS. In this regard, value engineering has been identified as a successful tool for product functional analysis. Several phases of value engineering overlap with the guiding principles of CSD–CSS. As such, this paper presents a value engineering framework that can be used for the analysis of the functional requirements of urban streets within a CSD–CSS approach. To place the proposed framework into context, a major transit improvement project in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, was studied. Seven of the main design elements were analyzed against the primary and secondary objectives identified by the value engineering process. Almost all objectives were attained by the design elements selected. The proposed framework and analysis of the case study show that the value engineering methodology can be efficiently used to address the needs of CSD design of urban streets.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.3141/2025-08
• 
• Summary URL:
  http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Integrating+Value+Engineering+and+Context-Sensitive+Solutions%3a+The+St.+Clair+Avenue+West+Transit+Improvements+Project&author=H.+Osman&author=N.+El-Gohary&author=T.+El-Diraby&publication_year=2007
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780309104524
• Authors:
  • Osman, Hesham
  • El-Gohary, Nora M
  • El-Diraby, Tamer E
• Publication Date: 2007

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 81-89
• Monograph Title: Highway Facility Design 2007
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2025
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Context sensitive design; Highway design; Public transit; Urban development; Urban highways; Value engineering
• Uncontrolled Terms: Context sensitive solutions; Transit improvement projects; Transportation infrastructure
• Geographic Terms: Toronto (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Design; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01046096
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309104524
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 8 2007 6:03PM