At tomorrow’s meeting, the Council will consider awarding the construction contract of the Gateway Park project. This project is going for around 10 years and the Council action will hopefully help take the project near the finish line. We completely understand and acknowledge that the community had varying degrees of reactions about the project over the years, however, let’s hope that project ends soon so that the neighbors can enjoy this amenity and we, as a community, can move forward to other exciting projects ahead of us.
For the past few weeks, the City Council has been discussing different ways to cut the construction cost of the Gateway Park project. This cost-cutting effort is in addition to what the previous Council unanimously agreed to reduce the construction budget last year.
According to staff, some minor cost saving may be achieved by removing certain features from the pavilion portion of the park.
The covered pavilion is intended to provide important space for the community to gather and socialize. Additionally, it is designed to serve as a quality landmark for the visitors who enter the city through this busy gateway of the city. Without the pavilion, visitors will hardly see the park, due to its unique configuration.
The current pavilion design ($387K) includes bamboo cladding, lighting, and roofline. According to Council’s direction, staff has obtained cost estimates on a few options.
(1) Eliminate bamboo and replace with wood cladding, eliminate hanging bamboo, change supports from diagonal to orthogonal, eliminate front door, change storage door to wood (a saving of $60K)
(2) Make pavilion smaller, change roof line to be more orthogonal (a saving of $20K)
(3) Convert steel structure to timber frame (a saving of $50K) .
Options 1 and 2 will need a re-design structure, pavilion will have to be re-priced, and permit will need revisions. The lost time may impact schedule. In addition to a redesign and architecture, option 3 will require that the project will have to be re-bid, as bids will have expired. The bids for this design will be valid until July 26, 2018.
At the last meeting, staff was asked to explore another option about not installing the pavilion at this time but install it at some time in future. According to the architect, installing the pavilion at a later date would require disturbance (and potentially damage) to installed work including the terrace, the pervious pavement and plantings.
Additionally, the staging of new construction may remove the park from use while the pavilion is installed. Furthermore, the water meter, electrical panel and other features in the current design will need to be relocated if the pavilion is not installed.
Existing funding for the project is provided through State Program Open Space (POS) in the amount of $672,057 with a required local match of $225,018 for a total of $897,075. The City’s match is currently funded in the Capital Improvement Program (CIP). The City’s FY2019 POS allocation for development could provide an additional $192,746 for the project, if needed.