EVERY GREAT CITY is built upon a solid foundation, known as its infrastructure.
Across America, it’s often overlooked or crumbling. In Irvine, however, this infrastructure was master planned before the first home was built — anticipating future needs in a way that never before had been tried.
Because of this, residents enjoy these benefits:
A smarter street system: Irvine’s hierarchical road system moves traffic around neighborhoods instead of through them. This not only keeps neighborhood streets quiet, it deters crime by eliminating the random motorists found on grid-style street systems used in most cities.
Alternative transportation: More than 360 miles of bike trails, Amtrak and Metrolink service, and the iShuttle, a system that takes commuters from the station to the office, all combine to take cars off the road and relieve congestion.
Light synchronization: Traffic lights talk to each other in Irvine. Key intersections in Irvine are synced to avoid waiting when there’s no cross traffic.
Smooth roads: Irvine’s streets came out among the smoothest in the state in a California survey of 482 cities. This can be attributed to continual funding for road improvements across town.
Recycled water: Irvine’s recycled-water system was one of the first in the U.S., with more than 500 miles of purple pipes that deliver recycled water for landscaping — saving 8.5 billion gallons each year for drinking water.
Reliable water supply: Sixteen reservoirs located throughout the city store 1.6 billion gallons of water for a reliable local water supply.
Fiber-optic cable: Early planning anticipated the future. That’s why Irvine, along with utility partners Cox and SCE, has been able to install fiber-optic networks ahead of other cities. That includes industry-leading Google Fiber.
Hybrid electric buildings: Irvine has the world’s first fleet of hybrid-electric office buildings. These buildings use Tesla batteries that reduce enough power demand during peak hours to serve 10,000 homes.
