The canals in Utrecht date back to the 12^th century when they were built to defend the city from potential enemy attacks. In the mid 1900’s a proposal was put forward to have more car parking spaces in the city centre to make it more accessible to residents. In the early 1960’s a plan was approved to fill in the ring of canals surrounding the city centre. In addition to that, the largest covered shopping centre in the Netherlands was built between Utrecht’s Central Station and the old city centre, with an eight-lane motorway underneath.

Although these changes brought prosperity to the city, including accessibility to the shopping centre and a solution to traffic problems, locals have always been unhappy about the disappearance of the water.

The canal project started as the result of a citizen’s referendum in 2002, when citizens overwhelmingly voted for its restoration. The referendum followed a decades-old activists campaign against the construction of the motorway in the 1970’s at the expense of parts of the canal.

After the referendum, the activists continued to play an active role in the planning and design of the renovated canal. From the early stages of the project, a wide variety of stakeholders, ranging across the public to the private sector, have been actively involved, along with residents who were directly impacted by the project. A “walking market” gave residents the opportunity to offer their input about the plans and ask raise their concerns.

Overall, an intensive participation process has been followed, including the establishment of a citizens advisory group of 30 people. The restoration plan was set up in close cooperation with them.

The new design of the canal significantly alters the look and feel of Utrecht’s city centre. This large-scale urban renovation project is unique because the old, historical structures of the city were used to make Utrecht greener, healthier and friendlier. The canal project is a kaleidoscope of modern urban development. It is unique for a motorway to be converted back to water and greenery. The canal provides a connection to a plethora of important urban functions including, the station, a pop stage, theatres, and the museum.

Parking facilities have been moved, an environmental zone has been activated and the weight of vehicles is limited. A large parking garage has been installed under part of the city. From there, visitors can reach different parts of the downtown area. Hubs are planned where freight traffic can overload supplies to companies in the city centre. The aim is to allow only electric transport in the future, so emissions can be reduced to zero. Utrecht has the largest bicycle parking facility in the world and has planned numerous bicycle parking facilities throughout the city.

The municipality has received support from the citizens – even though the city centre was a construction site for a long time – by involving all stakeholders in the process The appearance of a city centre as an area that is pleasant to live, work and play in has a lot to do with the community support for the project. The water is now flowing through the centre of Utrecht again. There are green areas and walking paths along it. The crops and trees will grow and bloom in the coming years. The greenery between the buildings will also lead to improved air quality.

The development and renovation of the area was financed by a land development scheme in which revenues were created by selling land and buildings within the area. These revenues were used to further develop the public area. Within the broader land development, an amount of 16,6 million euros was reserved for the restoration of the canal.

In order to improve the canal as a natural connection, a group of enthusiastic residents formed ‘Greening Singel 030’ in 2013 to help and offer ideas to make the canal more attractive for plants and animals. For example, flowery foreshores and fauna exit sites were created. One particularly important and innovative project is the fish doorbell in the canal. Every spring, fish swim to Utrecht, looking for a place to spawn and reproduce. There is a problem, however: they often have to wait a long time at the Weerdsluis lock on the west side of the inner city, as the lock rarely opens in spring. Members of Greening Singel 030 came up with a solution: the fish doorbell! An underwater camera has been set up at the lock, and the live feed is streamed to the homepage. If you see a fish, press the digital fish doorbell. The lock operator receives a signal and can open the lock if there are enough fish.

The major challenge was to bring together the different ideas and opinions to form one vision for the project. As a result, choices had to be made, which meant that not all ideas could be integrated within the design. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that residents’ ideas were neglected. On the contrary, the design wouldn’t have been such a success without people’s input. Due to their expert knowledge of the area, in combination with biologists, architects, ecologists, locals’ knowledge was extremely valuable for the design process.