The European city hall that transformed an old urban avenue back into a canal, recovered a section that was filled in the 1970s, and delivered a new public space with water, vegetation, and pedestrian paths.

Written by Fabio Lucas Carvalho

Published on 21/06/2026 at 19:53

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Part of the Catharijnesingel canal had been drained and filled to accommodate a multi-lane urban road, but the decision was reversed after decades of discussion, a referendum held in 2002, and phased works that returned the navigable ring, green areas, and public spaces to the center of Utrecht.

The city of Utrecht, in the Netherlands, completed in September 2020 one of the most symbolic urban transformations in Europe: it removed a road intended for cars and returned water to a section of the historic Catharijnesingel canal. The intervention restored the navigable ring around the old center and created new green areas and spaces for pedestrians.

Canal was filled to make room for cars

The Catharijnesingel was part of the system of canals and moats that surrounded the historic core of Utrecht. During the expansion of automobile traffic in the 20th century, part of this structure was drained and filled. In its place arose the Catharijnebaan, a sunken multi-lane urban road, built to facilitate vehicle access to the commercial area and the central station.

The change, executed mainly during the 1970s, ended up interrupting part of the old aquatic circuit. Although often called a “highway,” the Catharijnebaan functioned more precisely as an urban expressway located in the city center.

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Project took decades to be completed

The first plans to recover the canal began to take shape in the 1990s. In 2002, residents approved in a referendum a plan to reorganize the center that included replacing the lanes with water. The reconstruction occurred in stages and was integrated with the renovation of the area near the railway station.

The first restored sections were delivered in 2015. The final stage, between Mariaplaats and the Bartholomeus bridge, was opened on September 12, 2020. As a result, boats returned to travel the entire route around the historic center.

Water, trees, and public space replaced the asphalt

The new design was not limited to reopening the canal. The project incorporated sloped banks, trees, vegetation, paths, and living areas. It also restored the continuity of Zocherpark, a park created in the 19th century over the city’s old defensive structures.

The Municipality of Utrecht presents the work as part of its healthy urban living policy. A municipal document states that traffic lanes have been replaced by water and vegetation, completing the canal once again. The OKRA office, responsible for the landscape project, claims that the intervention made the area more pedestrian-friendly and helped connect the historic center to the renovated neighborhoods.

Utrecht’s experience has come to be cited as an example of a city that reviewed a car-centered decision and reclaimed a historical element for collective use.

Sources: Municipality of Utrecht and The Guardian.

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The European city hall that transformed an old urban avenue back into a canal, recovered a section that was filled in the 1970s, and delivered a new public space with water, vegetation, and pedestrian paths.

Part of the Catharijnesingel canal had been drained and filled to accommodate a multi-lane urban road, but the decision was reversed after decades of discussion, a referendum held in 2002, and phased works that returned the navigable ring, green areas, and public spaces to the center of Utrecht.

Canal was filled to make room for cars

Project took decades to be completed

Water, trees, and public space replaced the asphalt

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The European city hall that transformed an old urban avenue back into a canal, recovered a section that was filled in the 1970s, and delivered a new public space with water, vegetation, and pedestrian paths.

Part of the Catharijnesingel canal had been drained and filled to accommodate a multi-lane urban road, but the decision was reversed after decades of discussion, a referendum held in 2002, and phased works that returned the navigable ring, green areas, and public spaces to the center of Utrecht.

Canal was filled to make room for cars

Project took decades to be completed

Water, trees, and public space replaced the asphalt

In the cold desert of Ladakh, where it hardly rains, engineer Sonam Wangchuk created the ice stupa, a tower that freezes winter water and stores it for irrigating crops in the spring, a simple engineering feat that mimics nature.

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

Two helicopters, 41 people, and over 38 tons of bait were mobilized on a remote Pacific atoll to eliminate rats; five years later, native trees grew by 5,000%, seabirds gained habitat, and the rainforest began to regenerate.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

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