The railroad played an important role in the industrialization of São Paulo, linking urban settlements to the state capital. The activity of transporting suburban passenger had, for many years, a secondary choice, leaving the transportation of cargo as the priority of its business.
The district of Lapa was one of the regions which most developed with industrialization. It is served by lines 7 and 8 of the Company of Metropolitan Trains – CPTM, respectively extensions of the Railway – SPR and Sorocabana Railroad, that divide the district in the North, Lower Lapa and South, the last one corresponding to the Lapa district.
Each line has its own station, all independent and without any kind of integration. They are distant from each other about 500meters. The Line 7, implanted in the second half of the 19th century, is physically closer to the northern portion of the region, while the other relates more directly to the center of Lapa to the south.
Subsequently, the migration of industries to the hinterland or remote areas left behind and longwise the railroad, abandoned facilities most of the times poorly maintained which caused to the environment a bulging deterioration.
CPTM is currently responsible for 16% of the daily demand in the metropolitan region, which equals 2 million passengers.
The Master Plan for Urban insertion lines was drafted as a complement to the studies of the system modernization. This plan, considering proposals of the municipal planning in the same direction, confirmed the desirability of restructuring the region of Lapa. Among these improvements, there is a proposal for unification of the Lapa stations associated to the physical and functional reconfiguration of the entire area which surrounds it. That includes the implanting of property developments associated with the new station.
This New Lapa has also been the object of studies making it as a linking and integration center for different types of transport modes and making it a referencial station for new railroad services. This, of course, should bring it to a superior importance when compared to the local scale.
Within the CPTM operations, new services will be offered, such as the Northwest Express, to be implanted on Line 7; the West-South Express, which will use lines 8 and 9, also involving the physical connection between stations of Ceasa and New Lapa; the Touring Express Tour Luz-Jundiaí. A regional train to Sorocaba, besides the project of the Mobility Metropolitan Trunk which will evaluate the functions that the railroad should play in the stretch Lapa – Bras, either on existing rails, or on parallel structures to them. Also it must be noted that the rail bed should be seen throughout the extent of Line 8, with single lane dedicated exclusively for cargo.
Given the importance of this urban center, the City government has been conducting studies for lowering the subway train in the western line, thus indicating the possibility of burying the definitive station. The surroundings will have their values automatically up. Then it will be possible to call Lapa all neighborhoods up and down, north and south of the tracks. In this district the railway track is narrow and does not live with
the rest of the city. Near the river and in a predominantly flat geography, transpositions are barred only by trains.
The districtal market of Lapa, the SPTrans bus terminal and the Science Station are some of the landmark buildings in the neighborhood.NEW DEMANDSTo receive the new services that CPTM has to offer, there is not enough space on the railway track; Therefore the railway lines designed to serve the increased demand will have to be placed at different levels. Line 9 can share space with the cargo line, at alternate time. The cargo can pass segregated from other lines in the Lapa station.
Two stages of work were proposed: the construction of two parallel diaphragm walls, enabling the use of underground mezzanine as a link between the two phases. Built in the first stage, it can be used for the services that are now in the Lapa level and for services that will pass under it in the next step.
The first stage focuses existing services. The second stage considers the burial of the rails along with the arrival of new services.PROJECT

PHASE 1

The Tiburtino Stream, a Tiete river affluent, crosses perpendicularly the railway tracks and was a determinant factor to the design of the train station. The construction of the train station itself contemplates this stretch of the creek over the future platforms.
The process of lowering the tracks demanded a study on the bending of the tracks in this stretch. The ramps follow the CPTM standards – 1.5%, which is defined by the cargo trains.
The location of the Lapa Station is on the limits so that the accessing ramps be contained between the Lapa and Água Branca patios. Since it is the cargo lines that determines the distances, and because the ramps have to have a light inclination, the distance becomes rather large.
Beyond the stream, other interferences can be accommodated next to the implantation of the station. For structural and safety reasons, the mezzanine slab is under a 1.5 meter layer of earth, where several infra-structure elements can run without causing interferences. This earth layer allows the growing of bigger trees at the ground floor.
At North Side, next to one of the access, it was proposed a construction of another bus terminal. The train station stays limited at both extremities by the connection points of bus terminals.
The mezzanine was divided into two parts. The first one contains ticket offices and public restrooms, blockade lines, service rooms and access to the platforms. The entrances are located on a several plots adjacent to the railway strip and are connected with the mezzanine through tunnels.
The platforms on the street level are covered by a single roof, constructed with the same steel pieces that will be used again on the second phase.

PHASE 2

Lines 7 and 8 have consolidated two access situations – at North and at South of the tracks, and these are crossing points established in the city. They are located not distant to the SPTrans Bus Terminal and near 12 de Outubro Street, an important commercial area.
In reason of the high demand, the quantity of blockade lines and tickets offices was a decisive factor in establishing independent accesses. The separate entrances allows that the creek be kept in its current course.
It is at this phase that the new systems shall be implemented – Line 9 and the traffic of express trains, and the second part of the mezzanine, symmetrically positioned to the one already constructed. Under the concluded mezzanine, the digging will continue until the construction of the new platforms.
The ramp used during the digging operations of the construction is now transformed into a great opening that sprays light and fresh air to people into the platforms.
Because of the localization of the two new entrances, a marquee has been proposed at the city level. This roof resolves the protection of the accesses to the train station and allows that the connection between the two bus terminals be done at the same level. The opening to the exterior reduces the needs for any mechanic ventilation system.
The street level is connected to the mezzanine throughout two large skylights. The train keeps participating in the scenery, because when one stays in the marquee it is still possible to see them running down. The uncovered part of the Tiburtino Stream can also be seen from this same marquee flowing under the station. The new Lapa Station reveals a little part of the water system that runs canalized under the ground.
The new station allows the connection of the three main transversal streets. This new crosses reconnects the segregated fabric of Lapa District. The new boulevard along the railway strip permits the transformation of the back side of the city into a new public charming space.
The lowered railway strip measuring one kilometer long and 55 meter wide in this stretch, creates the possibilities of constructing new buildings, large sidewalks and pleasant public spaces, all associated with this operation.
Along the avenue the great marquee provides space to shops, cafeterias, restaurants and the entrances of the new buildings. These multi-use buildings placed above the marquee, actually over a continuous green roof that identifies the whole of actions taken and reverting to the public administration the profits resulting from the real state operations. The parking areas of these buildings can share the space between the tracks and the ground level (using the diaphragm walls as structure), intercalated by the mezzanines in the railway station.
This is a new operation intended to replace the current way of looking at the transportation on rails , which in São Paulo is historically not planned and thought as complex of sectors that must be integrated to new city operations, to the new ways of local connections, to the appearance of under-structural interferences (like the Tiburtino stream) . All that must connected to the real state segment so that costs of implementation can be reduced for the public administration. At last an urban design working as a triggering action, where the city reveals itself on sectioned views.