Starting this week, Marwest Industries Ltd. will begin preparing for the construction of Castlegar’s new castle play structure at Millennium Park.
The new playground will be constructed in the same location as the existing one, next to the parking lot.
Marwest’s work will begin with the installation of fencing around the existing playground, clearing the area of trees, and taking down the current playground structure.
Following this work, the site will be handed over to a specialized playground contractor to build the play structure and install the pour-in-place rubberized safety surface.
Once the pour-in-place surface is complete, Marwest will return to install new landscaping, including turf, trees, plants, and fencing.
The city says given the construction timelines and the requirement for the pour-in-place surface to be installed in warm and dry conditions, the structure might not open to the public until next spring. It was originally thought it might be ready in mid-fall.
“The logistics are difficult because there are so many entities involved as far as the site works and the installation,” said city engineering manager Travis Christianson.
“We are looking at mid-October for everything being done other than the pour-in-place surface and the landscaping. If we get good weather, we can go ahead with the rubber surfacing. But if we get rain and it gets colder, we won’t be able to. So we may have to wait until spring for that to happen.”
Christianson said the project will result in seven trees being cut down, some of which had health issues and may have been removed anyway. They will be replaced by nine new trees plus over 600 shrubs and other plants.
The new trees will be positioned to provide shade, mainly in the areas where there will be seating, while the shrubs will act as a buffer from the parking lot as well as a “thermal barrier” from the radiating heat of the parking lot asphalt.
The overall project, which includes components besides the playground, is budgeted at $1.9 million, of which $1.2 million has come through a federal grant.
