Work continues on city parks
SOME DELAYS AT LEGACY REGIONAL PARK
Snow is forecast, and construction is not complete. But Lethbridge residents should still be able to enjoy most of their new Legacy Regional Park next summer.
Parks manager Dave Ellis says a few work areas may remain fenced off, but he expects to see an official opening by early summer.
“You can’t keep people out, once they’ve seen all the facilities,” he explains.
Playgrounds, picnic shelters, pathways and larger features including a skateboard park are in place, though some landscaping remains to be done on the park’s east side. Builders are also hoping to complete a parks equipment depot on the eastern edge, near Uplands Boulevard North.
Meanwhile, Ellis reports, smaller projects are also in progress in the city’s older regional parks, Henderson Lake and Nicholas Sheran.
At Legacy, he says, problems with installation of an extensive underground irrigation system resulted in a change of the subcontractor — resulting in a delay. The hurricane that shut down refineries in Texas led to a shortage of plastic pipes, Ellis explains, delaying a planned irrigation system upgrade in Nicholas Sheran Park.
Other projects to be completed at Legacy, he adds, include a rubberized surface at one of the playgrounds. And a roof is still missing from the belvedere.
Construction machines, as well as stockpiles of granular and building materials, continue to occupy some of the access roadways and parking areas.
“They’re not going to quite finish this fall,” he predicts. “They could be winding it up for the year.”
Once the snow flies, Ellis says, keeping crews on hand in case the weather improves can be something of a gamble. But barring a severe winter, trades people can be back to finish the job in spring.
After the park opens, Ellis points out, work will begin on several more features.
An adventure playground and a multi-purpose pavilion building have been approved as additional amenities.
“The park will be under construction for a couple of more years,” as those and other projects are completed.
Across Uplands Boulevard, meanwhile, another contractor has completed landscaping work on a combined park and school site that features the city’s first cricket pitch.
“That takes about five acres,” he notes.
And over at Henderson Park, crews have started work on a concrete retaining wall to replace a treated wood wall that dates back to the park’s major redevelopment in the 1980s, adjacent to the concession stand.
When completed, Ellis says it will be more of a terraced plaza, with better access to the lake.
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