Parking lot work and the construction of a new practice soccer field and connecter road is about 50 percent complete at the Lee Lake Complex, a City-owned, multi-use facility located at 2200 S.E. Adams Blvd.
The voter-approved project consists of:
- New parking lots at Lee Lake and Cooper Dog Park, replacing the existing gravel lots
- Installation of a new connection road between the Lee Lake parking lot, Cooper Dog Park and Daniels Fields
- Removal of the westernmost and easternmost drive approaches onto Adams Boulevard
- Construction of a new 75 x 120 yard soccer field along the east of the existing fields
“Paragon has completed the majority of the work on the Lee Lake parking lot, soccer field, and connection between Lee Lake parking and Cooper Dog Park,” said Director of Engineering Micah Siemers. “They are currently working on adjusting grades on the Cooper Dog Park parking lot and the connection road between that lot and the Daniels Fields parking lot.
“When the weather cooperates, they will begin installing sod in select areas and hydro-seeding the remaining disturbed areas. They still have to complete the subgrade prep and aggregate base for the Cooper Dog Park parking lot and remaining connection road. Once that is complete they will begin laying asphalt when weather permits. The final step will be striping and any remaining cleanup work and remaining sod/seeding.”
Funding for the $588,501 project, which is actually several projects rolled into one, was approved by voters in the 2018 General Obligation Bond ($386,514) and the Half-cent Capital Improvement Project Sales Tax ($201,987) elections.
The project is expected to wrap up by mid-May, weather permitting.
Robinwood Soccer Fields & Lee Lake Skate Park lighting
New lighting is being installed at the Robinwood Soccer Fields and the Lee Lake Skate Park, thanks to voters who approved funding for the project in the 2020 General Obligation Bond Election.
The project consists of installing salvaged MUSCO field lighting from the Price Fields Sports Complex on the south three soccer fields at Robinwood Park, located at 2200 S.E. Frank Phillips Blvd., and at the City-owned skate park, located at 2200 S.E. Adams Blvd.
“Sixteen 60-foot tall light poles and associated light fixtures were salvaged from the Price Fields Phase 3 project with the intent to repurpose at Robinwood Park and the Lee Lake Skate Park,” said Siemers. “The scope of work includes providing new primary and secondary electric for the lights and coordination with MUSCO to provide a turnkey, fully functional field lighting system.”
Contract crews are in the process of installing the lighting now, Siemers said.
“They have installed the pre-cast concrete bases for the poles and have installed conduit from the power supply location to each pole,” he said. “They used boring equipment for the conduit installation instead of open cutting trenches which made for a cleaner job. They are waiting on electrical components that should be coming in the next week or two. At that time, they will begin moving the salvaged light poles to the site that are currently being stored at another City-owned facility. ”
The lighting project is targeted for completion by the end of March, weather permitting.
“We are heading into the time of year when wet weather can slow things down, but hopefully we will get enough decent weather to get wrapped up then,” Siemers said.
Downtown Wayfinding, Entryway signs
The Downtown Wayfinding and Entryway Signs project continues with park signs installed and installation of entryway signs expected soon.
The project, recommended in the 2013 Community Strategic Plan and approved by voters in the 2018 General Obligation Bond Election, involves the construction of gateway signage into the city at major entryways and wayfinding signage for parks and recreational facilities as well as the downtown redevelopment district and downtown entryways.
The project got underway in February of last year when the City Council awarded a contract for the project to ACSM Inc. for the design, fabrication and installation of the signage. The Pathfinder Parkway signs and park signs have been installed, and entryway signs should be installed by spring of this year, weather permitting.
“ACSM had planned to be in Bartlesville this week to install the downtown wayfinding signs, but due to some logistical issues on their end and a forecast of less than desirable weather, that work has been postponed,” Siemers said.
A virtual meeting has been scheduled later this week to discuss rescheduling the downtown wayfinding install and the status of the gateway signs and wayfinding signs on major traffic routes around Bartlesville, he said.
“The contract with ACSM included installation of the park entry signs, which has been completed, but it did not include final site work around the signs. City of Bartlesville Public Works crews have been working on pouring concrete mow strips around the Pathfinder trailhead signs and will also begin working on grading and concrete work around the park entry signs in the near future,” Siemers said. “We will know more after the meeting this week, but we are hopeful to have the remaining wayfinding signage and gateway signage completed this spring.”
The project cost is $660,000, funding for which is possible through the 2018 G.O. Bond and the Bartlesville Redevelopment Trust Authority, whose Board of Trustees voted in September 2022 to approve $160,000 in funding to expand the project. It is anticipated that funding will be available sometime in February.
Fifth Street Improvements
There’s a bit of a glitch in the Fifth Street Sidewalks and Concrete Paving Rehabilitation project, a jointly-funded Community Development Block Grant Project utilizing a 50/50 match of funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as administered by the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and the City of Bartlesville.
The project consists of constructing new sidewalks and associated ADA ramps along Fifth Street from Sunset to Santa Fe to facilitate safe routes for local pedestrians to access the multiple nonprofit organizations and recreational facilities in the area. Also included in the project is the rehabilitation of the street’s concrete pavement between Virginia and Santa Fe. All improvements will be located within public right-of-way.
But it was recently discovered there is an old landfill beneath the roadway in the area, a problem that will require more funding and planning before construction can begin, Siemers said recently.
“It came to our attention that Fifth Street crossed an old landfill when the existing pavement was removed and the contractor couldn’t get good compaction on the subgrade,” he said. “We occasionally run into soft subgrade material on our street projects. Typically, our solution is to undercut the poor quality material and then back-fill with what we call surge rock. This basically consists of larger six-inch washed rock that can bridge the deeper soft material. We then pick back up with the typical aggregate base and pavement. We have a bid item included in our projects to cover this work, typically with no quantity associated with it, but it establishes a unit price for the work as part of the bid.
“This is a long way of explaining that we’ll have to pay more for the portion of roadway that overlaps the old landfill. We are hopeful it’s not too extensive, but we won’t know until we start finding better material under the portions of roadway we plan to replace. Fortunately, we always include some contingency in each project to cover unforeseen issues that come up. I cannot promise we will stay within our contingency, but that is always the goal. And so far, we have not gone over the contingency.”
The original budget amount for the project was $456,666, which included $243,333 from CDBG grant funds and $243,333 from the City’s Capital Reserve Street Funds. The lowest bid, from KSL Dirtworks, was $489,900 which is $33,234 over the original budget, so City staff identified $33,234 of additional funding from this year’s budgeted American Rescue Plan Act Street Funds to offset the budget deficit, making the available budget equal to the lowest bid amount of $489,900.
Caney River Pump Station
Renovation of the Caney River Pump Station got underway last fall but supply chain issues have kept the station offline, pending the delivery of a part used for motor control, Director of Water Utilities Terry Lauritsen said this week.
The $1.2 million renovation is necessary to facilitate the City’s ongoing water reuse project and involves replacing all pumps at the station as well as exterior repairs. Contract company Crossland Construction has been working on the renovation since last fall.
“Unfortunately, we are having problems finding this part due to supply chain issues. We have been pursuing other vendors, but so far nothing has materialized,” Lauritsen said.
Pathfinder Renovation & Expansion Project
Construction plans are complete for the Pathfinder Renovation and Expansion Project, and bids could be opened as early as March.
Service and Technology Corporation (STC), a local company contracted to assess, prioritize and plan repairs for the City-owned trail system, submitted the plans last week.
“STC submitted final construction plans for review last week. We will review those plans one last time and work towards advertising bids,” Siemers said Monday. “We have some work to do on the rest of the bid documents and, at first glance, there are a couple of things we need to add to the plans, but our goal is to be ready to advertise this project towards the end of February for a bid opening in late March, and hopefully award a contract at the April 3 City Council meeting. This will set construction to begin this summer.”
For more information about this project, see STC issues Pathfinder Assessment Report.
Douglass Park Shelter & Oak Park Basketball Court
Two projects approved for funding in 2020 elections — the Douglass Park Shelter and Oak Park Basketball Court — are targeted for construction this summer, said Siemers.
The Douglass Park Shelter, approved by voters in the 2020 General Obligation Bond Election, and Oak Park Basketball Court, approved in the 2020 Half-cent Capital Improvement Project Sales Tax Election, are still in the planning stages, he said.
“Our department currently has a fairly heavy workload of capital projects and we’re trying to work in design on these projects with in-house resources,” Siemers said. “Our goal is to have plans ready sometime this spring for a late summer construction timeframe.”
The basketball court will replace the existing courts at the northeast corner of the Oak Park Elementary School property, while the Douglass Park Shelter will be similar to what was recently constructed at Sooner Park in the old pea gravel playground area.
“In similar fashion, it will likely be built where the older playground equipment is currently located at Douglass Park. That equipment will be salvaged and stored for potential use at a later date, as new playground equipment was installed in Douglass Park in 2019,” Siemers said.
Photo by Joan Azeka via Unsplash
Pickleball Courts
Voters approved $459,000 in funding for new pickleball courts, a project that should be moving ahead very soon.
“We are hoping to seek City Council approval for a contract for design and engineering on this project next month,” said Siemers.
The original plan was to modify the tennis courts in Johnstone Park, near the Richard Kane YMCA. However, a better location has been identified after coordination efforts between City staff and local resident Kumar Krishnan, who first approached the City Council about including pickleball courts to the 2020 General Obligation Bond Election line-up.
“We’ve identified the area north of the tennis courts in Sooner Park as the best location for these courts,” Siemers said. “Parking and restroom facilities are readily available at this location, and the more we looked at modifying the courts at Johnstone Park with an enclosure or cover, the more we realized that it wasn’t a very good fit. We’ve coordinated with some of the local citizens who were a catalyst for the project in the first place, who have agreed that constructing new courts at a different location was a better use of the funding.”
The current scope of the project will include a design for six courts with a bid alternate to add two additional courts. So hopefully we will get eight courts once bids come in. We expect design to be wrapped up sometime in June.”
Shade structures and lighting will be included in the contract bid as alternates, Siemers said, meaning these items will only be added if funding is available after the cost of constructing the courts is covered.