Main Playground Resurfacing Project Update

Those walking through the greenbelt may have seen that we are currently in the middle of our playground resurfacing project and that the demo stage is complete. As we’ve mentioned previously, the original plan was to add wood chips and a strip of rubber at the southern half of the playground, due to the condition of the existing rubber surface there.

After removing the rubber and exposing the concrete slab below, we found a large amount of sand sitting below the concrete. This allowed us to quickly consider another option for this project – sand throughout the entire playground area. Originally this wasn’t considered due to cost – sand is very expensive and we would need a lot of it ti fill up this area – but upon finding a significant amount of sand already here, we asked the vendor what it would cost to change the scope from wood chips and rubber to just sand throughout.

This change ended up saving more than $9,000 from the total cost of the project! As of today, we have officially instructed the vendor to proceed with an updated scope that calls for filling the entire main playground area with sand, and are pivoting away from the original design of wood chips and rubber at the southern end.

This also comes as a result of feedback received from homeowners who reached out once the project was underway, commenting on a general dislike of wood chips in playgrounds and a preference for more sand if possible. Luckily the discovery of sand underneath the original rubber surface made this actually financially possible, cutting the cost of the project by about 20%!

We expect the sand to be delivered and for the project to wrap up next week. We will keep you updated if there are any delays, but for the moment the work remaining is delivery and installation of the new sand.