Rose Bowl Strategic Plan:

Section 2.1 - Bowl Access and Egress

There has been considerable discussion and study concerning the access to and egress from the seating bowl, resulting in several studies to address both the public safety and fan convenience shortcomings of the facility in its existing condition. There are currently two separate strategies for exiting the seating bowl in place, one for normal operations, and one for emergency situations only. Ideally, there would be one strategy that works for both situations.

In normal operations the seating bowl is currently accessed entirely by way of the 28 tunnels, equally spaced around the seating bowl. Tunnels are dedicated to serve individual seating sections and there is no cross aisle circulation between the tunnels within the seating bowl. The tunnels, as currently configured, each have sufficient width to adequately serve approximately 1900 persons by current life safety standards. The actual populations served range from a low of about 2,840 on the sidelines to over 4160 at the south end zone. As a general point of reference, an egress system design to current standards would allow for a facility to completely empty in a safe and orderly fashion in about 10 to 11 minutes. Clearly, the current overburdens placed on the tunnels increases that time significantly, resulting in severe congestion pre-game, post game and half time. Indeed, previous studies on the Rose Bowl indicate an average exiting time of over 20 minutes.

Another critical piece of the seating bowl access / egress system is the arrangement of vertical aisleways serving the seating sections. There is currently one vertical aisleway, approximately 4' in width serving each seating section. Although there are several aspects of the aisles that do not meet current building code standards, one could conclude that these aisles are adequate to each serve a population of about 800 persons. Currently, aisles below the tunnels each serve populations of 800 to 1200 persons; aisleways above the tunnels, due to a larger number of rows with increased seats per row, each serve populations 1900 to 2500. This overburden again results in an increased time required to access or exit the seating bowl. In order to make significant improvements to the ability for fans to enter and leave their seats, it is necessary to address both the aisle system and the tunnel system.

This concept is proposing improvements to the bowl that take advantage of existing infrastructure and minimize alterations and additional construction. The north and south end zone bench seat areas each contain about 28% of the bowl population and are the most severely deficient in terms of access and egress. This concept proposes enlargements to the existing tunnels (10 total) in order to adequately serve the populations in those areas. The tunnels at the south end are within the area of raised superstructure and are therefore the most easily accessed for modification. The existing south end field access roadways will be split between public and team use in such a way to maximize player privacy, and the on-field access will be shielded by advertising panels and/or landscaping (eg. low rose bushes).

It should be noted that existing data indicates that the majority of fans enter at the north and south ends of the facility and that seat access for these areas must be successful if an overall Bowl solution is to function properly.

The east and west sideline areas contain about 22% of the bowl population each. In those areas, we propose to divert a portion of the seats below the cross aisle to the field level to a dedicated public cross aisle leading to 4 existing exits at the corners of the field. End zone seats would continue to exit up to the tunnels allowing separation from players, officials and other field level personnel. The remaining sideline population is reduced to the point where it is adequately served by the existing tunnels and no further improvements are required.

Throughout the seating bowl, it is proposed to add intermediate vertical aisleways at each section and to create a continuous cross aisle connecting the tunnels behind the current handicapped seat locations. The additional aisleways reduce the seats per row to allow easier access to seats and greatly improve the ability to move to and from tunnel access points. The proposed cross aisle allows for the circulation system to be integrated and fans to move to points of lesser congestion.