Spray Pad Construction Delayed

We were all excited this spring with the news that our playground would soon have a water feature.  Construction was slated to start in July of this year and the spray pad open for enjoyment in 2025.  Preliminary work in June, unfortunately, revealed two previously unknown issues and the project will be delayed until at least next year.

The first issue is that geotechnical work revealed that the spray pad will require more reinforcements than planned.  This will add considerably to the already expensive excavation and concrete work.

The second issue is that a water supply, long thought in place, appears not to be there.  We were told in 2012 that a water line was in place for any future build. However, neither Epcor nor ourselves — we looked and looked! — can find any evidence of the missing line.

The final issue is that, due to the late notification of our CFEP grant success, the project was sent to tender late, long after the usual summer project tendering.  This meant companies were already busy and would only submit high bids.

All three issues combined to an unexpected, projected shortfall of $100k.  To say this was disheartening is to put it mildly indeed.  The WP Spray Pad committee was at the point of recommending to the executive that the project be shelved when the City met with us again proposing a few strategies to hopefully see the spray pad moving forward.

First, we are going to see if we can switch some community grants around to free up roughly another $50k.  Then we are going to approach CFEP to see if we can increase our grant to the maximum allowed which will bring approximately another $42k. Lastly we will put out to tender again but at a more favourable time, and to a larger group of contractors.  We are modestly confident this will see us back to, again, excitedly awaiting the commencement of construction.

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