Green corridor · Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
A drainage canal becomes a continuous green promenade.
The “Coulée Verte” turns an urban drainage corridor into a planted, accessible promenade, a biological corridor and a soft-mobility route, with ten pocket parks along the way.
Client
Urban Sanitation and Resilience Project (PARU) and Municipality of Cocody
Funder
World Bank
Team
SUEZ Consulting, INFRA TP Ingénieur Conseil, Signes Archi
Site
Riviera catchment, Cocody, Abidjan
Length
6.5 km, from the Fondasso district to the Bonoumin retention basin, with 10 sites
Planting
1,658 trees, of which 1,396 on the Coulée Verte
Budget
€3.5 million (green corridor component) (to confirm)
Timeline
2023 to 2024
The site
To write: the canal, the districts it crosses, and what the design takes from them.
The challenge
Public space is shrinking in Abidjan and homes in flood zones are at risk, so the drainage corridor becomes a safe, shared public space.
Mission of the team
Detailed technical study of the works to improve the rainwater drainage structures in the Riviera catchment (Bonoumin thalweg), Cocody.
Mission of Signes Archi
- A reference plan for the whole catchment, so that every site fits one overall vision
- Design of the Coulée Verte: a continuous planted promenade, accessible to all, with the green network running alongside the blue one
- Design of each of the 10 sites, after site visits and discussions with the residents
- Treatment of the banks: stepped systems, giving promenades that can be flooded gradually, in gabions or rock, which are permeable and can be changed in the future, unlike concrete
- Planting plan and filtering gardens for the effluents
- Safety of the routes: guardrails, and protection around play areas and sports equipment
- A teaching space (site 8): a trial garden that explains the water cycle to the public
- Technical documents to World Bank standards
Scope and themes: Design · Technical documents and tenders · Nature-based solutions · Designing with communities · Climate adaptation and resilience