Europaweg, Haarlem
From arterial road to green city street
The Europaweg runs through Schalkwijk, on the southern side of Haarlem, from the district centre to the Schipholweg. For decades it did one thing: carry traffic. Now at least 3,800 homes are being built along it, and Haarlem is shifting its mobility towards walking, cycling and public transport. The road has to become the street of a new district. For the Gemeente Haarlem, Felixx designed that street: fewer lanes, a bus lane, cycle paths, a wide walking zone, and the space that frees up given to water, soil and trees. The council approved the design in January 2024 and construction runs to the end of 2026.
Key info
- Year
- 2023 - Ongoing
- Type
- Infrastructure, Public Space
- Size
- 25 ha
- Location
- Haarlem, The Netherlands
- Client
- Municipality of Haarlem
- Status
- Under construction
A street with ten jobs
A traffic route is designed to one measure: how much it can carry. Felixx brought to Haarlem the method it developed for Groningen in New Space, the design guideline that city adopted for its public space. It gives a street ten dimensions — mobility, accessibility, safety, experience, health, social interaction, ecology, climate adaptation, economy and cultural heritage — and weighs them together for the place in question. Mobility stays one of the ten.
For the Europaweg that meant reading the street before the network. What does Schalkwijk need from this line, now that thousands of people will live on it? Safe crossings between the neighbourhoods on either side. Shade and water in a district that will be denser than before. A route to walk and cycle along, and somewhere to stop. The balance came out of that reading, and it moved most of the road's width away from the car.
The new profile
The Europaweg keeps one car lane in each direction at 50 km/h. A bus lane runs down the middle. Two-way cycle paths lie on both sides, and beyond them broad pavements. A nine-metre zone along the street is given to walking, planting and staying, and it is what gives the avenue its identity. Roundabouts replace the traffic signals, with priority for cyclists and pedestrians, and safe crossings sit wherever existing walking and cycling routes meet the street.
Paving is cut back to what movement needs. The rest is returned to soil, vegetation and water.
Water, soil and trees
Rainwater is held in the street. Storage under the permeable paving takes the peaks, and wadis in the verges catch what falls on them and keep it for the planting through dry spells. The street cools in summer and floods less in a downpour.
The existing trees of value stay, and the new landscape is built around them. Around eighty per cent of the new trees are native European species, chosen with the Haarlem Nature Network for their ability to stand extreme weather and to feed the local ecology through the seasons. The planting under them is selected the same way. As the trees mature the street's microclimate improves, and its value with it.
Construction update May 2026
Construction update May 2026
A link in the Haarlem Nature Network
The Europaweg is one of the links in the Haarlem Nature Network, the city's chain of habitats and green spaces. The native planting gives birds, insects and other urban wildlife food, shelter and a way through. A line that divided Schalkwijk becomes a corridor along it, for people and for everything that lives there.
A barrier becomes a corridor, for people and for everything that lives along it.
The street of a new district
The 3,800 homes of the Ontwikkelzone Europaweg will open onto this street, and it is designed as their public space. The walking zone, the crossings and the planting bring interaction, activity and stopping to a line that had none, and the people using it make it a watched and safer place. It carries the district's daily movement and it holds the district's water, shade and wildlife.
The value builds over time. Trees grow, the ecology thickens, and what starts as a road rebuilt becomes the landscape structure of a part of the city.
Working together
Felixx designed the Europaweg for the Gemeente Haarlem, with Antea Group as engineering partner and Goudappel — also a partner on New Space — advising on mobility. Dura Vermeer builds it. The council approved the definitive design on 25 January 2024, construction began on 4 August 2025, and the street is due for completion at the end of 2026.
More info
- team
- Felixx
- Antea Group
- Goudappel
- Dura Vermeer
- photography/visuals
- Felixx
- Nadine van den Berg
- Plomp
- publications
- Gemeente Haarlem
