$93,000 repair work has begun on 3-year-old Bradenton Riverwalk skate park

BRADENTON -- The $93,000 fix on the 3-year-old Bradenton Riverwalk skate park bowl is underway.

Workers from DeLesline Construction, which was awarded the contract this past summer, descended on the site early last week.

Terrell Alland, with Palmetto-based DeLesline, said the scope of work hasn't changed. The company will construct concrete walls around the bowl, forming terraces similar to those at the park's amphitheater, but the skate park terraces will include a 5-foot sidewalk area to allow more socializing to take place at the top of the bowl without harming nearby landscaping.

Last May, concerns arose that the severely degraded man-made hill that supports the bowl was eroding to the point of allowing water underneath, a scenario that would have been a much more expensive fix. Team Pain, one of the country's premier skate park designers, built the skate park, but the issues that arose were not the fault of the contractor, more so than the city.

Public works Director Claude Tankersley previously told the Bradenton Herald that the city told Team Pain it would be responsible for landscaping after construction. The city used fill from the old sand pile where dirt dredged from the Manatee River was stored. Tankersley said it turned out to be an "aggressive soil" and wouldn't allow water to percolate. Instead, water would run down the hill, taking soil with it and eventually killed the landscaping, which was keeping the hill intact.

The same soil was used at the terrace steps of the amphitheater and the grass eventually died, and runoff down the steps stained the concrete. The city replaced the fill and sod last year.

Further inspections of the bowl indicated it was still structurally sound. Alland confirmed that on site Tuesday.

"We haven't found any issues and there's no indication that any water is getting underneath the bowl," he said.

Tankersley said the current project was needed to prevent further erosion, but the initial problems weren't all due to nature. People and bicyclists were trampling the landscaping by climbing up and down the hill. The step terraces will help end the erosion, secure the hill and protect both the bowl and future landscaping.

Alland said weather would be the determining factor in how long the project takes, but weather permitting, "It shouldn't take more than a month."

The bowl closed to skaters when workers arrived and will remain closed until construction is completed.

"The remainder of the park is expected to be unaffected and thus will remain open," said Tankersley. "The scope of work remains the same. The only change thus far is that we had to remove a few more trees that were found to be too close to the excavation and would have likely been lost."

Tankersley said a light pole also had to be relocated. The skate park is the only park that sits on both sides of a delineation line established by the city that determines funding for east and west city parks funded with impact fees. Since the park is technically on both sides of that line, the city was able to use park impact fees from both sources to pay for the project.

Mark Young, Herald urban affairs reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7041 or follow him on Twitter@urbanmark2014.

This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 2:53 PM with the headline "$93,000 repair work has begun on 3-year-old Bradenton Riverwalk skate park ."