Category Overview
Local Parks grants help protect these symbols of vibrant communities, providing places for families to gather and play and promoting a healthy and active lifestyle in an era when people spend increasing amounts of their time inside. The WWRP is the largest source of local parks funding in Washington, helping communities fund the acquisition, development, and renovation of vital recreation areas and green spaces.
Project Highlights
The City of Arlington used the RCO grant as part of the funding for the planning, design, permitting, construction and start-up of the Haller Splash Pad project. The project is complete and is being well received and well used by the Arlington community. A detailed description of the work funded with this grant is presented below: Design & Planning – The City of Arlington had been planning the Haller Park Splash Pad project for several years. The City worked with a local landscape architect to develop a conceptual plan for the splash pad and park improvements. Using the conceptual designs, the City then contracted with Innova Architects out of Tacoma to provide architectural landscape design, site civil design, mechanical design, electrical design services. The City collaborated with Innova on the design during the 30%, 60%, 90% and 100% design reviews. The splash pad equipment was provided by Northwest Playground Equipment, Inc., this supplier was selected because of their qualifications, previous splash pad projects and because they were on the Washington state bid list. Both the City and Innova coordinated with Northwest Playground Equipment on the selection of the splash pad toys, their placement on the splash pad, the piping layout and on the water filtration and pumping system. The City also contracted with local firms to provide survey and base mapping and site geotechnical assessment. This background data was used to develop a site grading plan that allowed the splash pad and walkways to connect with existing park facilities while also being consistent with ADA requirements. Permitting – Permitting work for this project included completion of a Cultural Resource Assessment per Executive Order 05-05 and obtaining building permits from Washington State Labor & Industries and the City of Arlington. The L&I building permit covered construction of the premanufactured pump house building and the City building permit covered inspection of the building foundation. Work on this site was covered under a SEPA DNS issued November 2013. Public Bid – This project was originally bid in May 2018, however due to the elevated construction market, no bids were received. The project was rebid in June 2018 with a change from a fixed construction timeframe to a must be complete timeframe. A local contractor, Reece Construction, was the low bidder and they were awarded the contract. Construction – Reece Construction started the project November 2018 and completed the project in May 2019. The first part of the construction required the removal of significant unsuitable soil material, import of structural fill, and site grading. After the mass site grading was completed, Reece installed water sewer and storm utilities to serve the splash pad. Electric conduit was also installed for a new electric service and park lighting. Next phase of work included staking the pump house building location, water storage reservoir location, splash pad toy locations and installing all of the below grade piping and drains necessary to make the splash pad work. The 69,000 pound precast concrete pump house building was constructed in Spokane and trucked to Arlington. A special crane lifted the building off the delivery trailer and placed it on the building pad. Once the pump house was installed one crew was designated to work on the mechanical systems (pumps, filters, UV disinfection, controls, etc.) and one crew started all of the concrete flatwork (sidewalks, ADA ramps, splash pad, seating wall, etc.). By late April 2019 this work was completed and work focused on landscaping and system testing. Startup – Haller Park remained open during the splash pad construction; the splash pad area was separated from the rest of the park by a chain-link construction fence. In May the system was flushed, energized and the splash pad master switch turned on. Children, parents, contractors and City staff all looked on and held their breath to see if the system would actually work as designed. After a few gurgles and purging of air from the system, all of the splash pad toys were in full operation. Testing and training of staff continued for several days and everything was ready for the opening celebration on the afternoon of May 23rd. The park opened for business at 11:00 am on Friday May 24th and has been opened since.