DATE: August 21, 2024
TO: Honorable Mayor and City Councilmembers
FROM: Parks and Recreation Department
TITLE: PUBLIC WORKS AGREEMENT WITH DAVE BANG AND ASSOCIATES, INC. FOR MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. PARK PLAYGROUND REPLACEMENT
RECOMMENDATION
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Staff recommends that the City Council approve a Public Works Agreement (PWA) with Dave Bang and Associates Inc., in an amount of $584,459, with a contingency of $25,000, for the purchase and installation of replacement playground equipment at Martin Luther King Jr. Park; and authorize the City Manager, or designee, to execute the agreement upon receipt of all supporting documents.
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BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS
The existing playground equipment at Martin Luther King Jr. Park was installed in 1998. Due to the age of the equipment, the original manufacturer no longer makes replacement parts. In order to properly maintain the equipment, and provide an updated recreational amenity to the public, the playground equipment needs to be replaced, including the existing pour in place rubber surfacing.
The City will be purchasing the equipment through a Sourcewell Cooperative Purchasing Agreement. The purchase and installation of the playground equipment will be managed by Dave Bang and Associates, Inc.
The park will receive two play structures and swings that are suitable for 2 to 5, and 5 to 12-year-old children (referenced in Attachment 1). The surface of the play area will be resilient rubber surfacing, to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for accessibility. The new playground equipment will be an upgrade from the original structures but will be consistent with the park and play structure area.
As part of the replacement process, the Public Works and Parks and Recreation Departments collaborated in the development of the project. The collaboration created a community survey which was prepared and released for public input. The community survey was advertised on-site via signage and on the City’s social media outlets. The survey was comprised of images depicting various types of play structures and various elements. In addition, questions were asked about play structure preferences, colors of elements and additional amenities desired by the community. There were 995 responses to the survey. The proposed structures reflect the priorities identified by the community in the survey. The project also includes shade sails for the 2 to 5-year-old structure and additional benches within the play area.
The Parks and Recreation Commission received an update about the project on July 9, 2024, including results of the survey and the reasons that the City uses rubber surfacing, which include safety, maintenance, and equity.
The City maintains playgrounds at twenty-five (25) parks, and five (5) have a combination of rubber surfacing and sand; fourteen (14) have a combination of rubber surfacing and engineered wood fiber; four (4) have all rubber surfacing; one (1) has all engineered wood fiber; and Palisades Park has all sand surfacing. The loose-fill surfacing used by the City requires no less than 9 inches of sand or engineered wood fiber to ensure proper attenuation; however, displacement and compaction of these materials can compromise the ability to protect a child from serious injury during a fall. Another safety concern is that foreign objects that can cause injury to children can be hidden in sand and engineered wood fiber. Although rubber surfacing can get hot, the design at Martin Luther King Jr. Park includes shade sails that will help to mitigate this issue in part of the playground.
Playground surface systems under and around playground equipment must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards for accessible design. Although engineered wood fiber can meet these standards, it must be maintained at a maximum running slope for a ground level accessible route of 6.25 percent, maximum cross slope of 2.08 percent, minimum clear width of 60 inches, limit change of level along the route or on the clear spaces of no more than half an inch, and vertical clearance up to 80 inches to comply. The use of wood chips represents a significant maintenance challenge, so the City uses rubber surfacing to ensure that playgrounds are accessible at all times. The U.S. Consumer Product Commission lists appropriate surfacing materials:
• Any material tested to ASTM F1292, including unitary surfaces, engineered wood fiber, etc.
• Pea gravel
• Sand
• Shredded/recycled rubber mulch
• Wood mulch that is not CCA-treated
• Wood chips
The U.S. Access Board and the National Center on Accessibility conducted a longitudinal study on the accessibility of playground surfaces, which focused on five surfaces as meeting minimum criteria for accessibility:
• Poured in place rubber surfacing
• Rubber tiles (bonded rubber constructed in 2 ft. by 2 ft. squares)
• Engineered wood fiber
• Shredded rubber
• Hybrid systems (multi-layer system where the base layer may consist of either contained or loos particles like shredded rubber or carpet pad. The top layers may be outdoor carpeting, artificial turf, or rubber top mat)
The US Consumer Product Safety Commission lists pour in place rubber as an acceptable playground surface in the Public Playground Safety Handbook. The mission of the Consumer Safety Product Commission is to protect the public against unreasonable risks of injury associated with consumer products, and they have not identified specific chemical hazards from recycled tires in playground surfacing. The International Playground Safety Institute and the certified playground inspector certification course identify pour in place rubber as an acceptable surface.
The buffing below the surface of the pour-in place rubber is made of recycled rubber; however, there is a cap of non-recycled rubber at the surface of the playground that keeps anyone from coming into contact with the recycled rubber. The use of rubber surfacing and the playground equipment that has been selected is consistent with the community input received during the survey.
FISCAL IMPACT
The purchase order with Dave Bang and Associates, Inc., in the amount of $584,459, with a contingency of $25,000, will be charged to the Play Structures Citywide account 906178022598.5703.10600 has an available balance of $1,000,000; therefore, sufficient funds are available.
|
Description |
Amount |
Account Description |
FY 2024-25 Available Balance |
|
Dave Bang & Associates PWA |
$584,459 |
906178022598.5703.10600 |
$1,000,000 |
|
Contingency |
$25,000 |
|
|
|
Total |
$609,459 |
|
|
COMMISSION OR COMMITTEE REPORT
The Parks and Recreation Commission received an update about the project on July 9 as part of the Department report. The report provided results of the survey and the reasons why the City uses rubber surfacing, which include safety, maintenance, and equity.
CITY ATTORNEY’S ANALYSIS
The referenced documents have been reviewed by the City Attorney and approved as to form.
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Prepared by: Manuel Gonzalez, Parks and Recreation Director
Reviewed by: Rob O’Brien, Deputy City Manager
Submitted by: Jonathan Borrego, City Manager
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Martin Luther King Jr. Park Playground Equipment and Quote
2. Agreement with Dave Bang and Associates Inc.
3. Survey Questions
4. Survey Results
5. Survey Comments