The long-awaited park being built on New Westminster's waterfront is expected to take shape in the coming weeks, but it may not open as soon as originally envisioned.
The City of New Westminster purchased the site on the waterfront in March 2009 for $8 million. The city, province and federal governments have each contributed $8.3 million toward park construction, and construction must be complete by March 2012 in order to comply with federal grant requirements.
"Work is steadily progressing at the site," said Jim Lowrie, the city's director of engineering. "They are doing the concrete work for the pathways and construction of the concession building."
The future Westminster Pier Park will be located on the waterfront between Sixth and Elliott streets. It will include a 600metre boardwalk that connects to the existing Quayside esplanade, pathways, a large gathering space, a concession stand, grassy areas, lookout points and bridges that provide views of the water, an elevated viewing area where people can see the Fraser River, and children's playgrounds.
A structure that will represent the historic Lytton Square, a building that housed the city's first official public market but was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1898, will be the centerpiece of the Westminster Pier Park. The structure, which will incorporate space that houses washrooms, storage and a concession, will be located near the foot of Sixth Street.
"The contractor is working steadily on the project," Lowrie said. "We are looking at substantial completion in the fall."
Lowrie said the landscape contractor was later getting onto the site than had been envisioned because the previous contractor was on the site longer than expected.
Once the concrete areas and hard surfaces are complete, which is anticipated to be in November, planting of landscaping materials will get underway.
"I think we are definitely on track to meet that March 2012 deadline," Lowrie said. "It is starting to take shape now. You can see the general form of the park."
A city official had previously suggested a ribbon cutting ceremony could be taking place at the site in the fall of 2011.
Earlier this year, the City of New Westminster launched a webcam looking out over the Westminster Pier Park construction site along the Fraser River. Accessible through the city's website, the webcam provides updated images of the park construction every 10 minutes during daylight hours.
"Over the past 30 days, we have had 660 views of the Westminster Pier Park project webcam; 550 of those have been unique visits," said Blair Fryer, the city's communications manager. "I think there is a lot of interest in the Westminster Pier Park as we move toward completion."
Lowrie said it's likely that an official opening of the park will be held in early 2012, but the city hopes to have a public open house at the site in the late fall.
A recent status update outlined various aspects of the project that have been completed: a park master plan; remediation investigation; detailed park design; site preparation and fencing; contaminated soil removal; demolishing of the exiting wharf; piling and decking; and groundwater treatment.
Work that's underway includes foundation construction and servicing, earthworks and building construction and concrete work, with soft landscaping (planting) to follow.
Soil remediation and groundwater treatment were required at the brownfield site, whose past uses included coal storage warehouses, industrial equipment operations, industrial machine shops, marine works, foundries or metal scrap melting, coal-fired power generation, marine and automobile fuelling and land filling.
Lowrie said documents about the remediation that's taken place at the site will soon be forwarded to the province.
"Final reports are just being prepared now," he told The Record. "They will be submitted to the Ministry of Environment at the end of this month."
www.twitter.com/TheresaMcManus
