A single excavator sits idle on a large grass field spreading east of Vancouver’s First Church of God and King’s Way Christian Schools. But the site of the new Luke Jensen Sports Park will soon fill up with construction equipment, transforming it into a new home for local sports groups.
“This is a trophy project for Clark County, so it needs to be beautiful,” said Steve Ambuehl, the project manager and estimator for Vancouver company Thompson Bros. Excavating.
Construction on the park, which will include three multipurpose, artificial turf fields and two grass baseball fields, starts April 11. The fields should be ready for Clark County sports teams by the start of the 2012 season.
Clark County commissioners awarded a $5.5 million construction contract on March 1 to Thompson Bros. Excavating, the lowest bidder.
On Tuesday, the board approved naming the park after Luke Jensen, a King’s Way Christian Schools student who was diagnosed with leukemia in 2007 and died last May at age 9.
Under budget as costs rise
Project manager Matt Griswold of Clark County Public Works said the park’s original budget was $9.1 million.
Since 2009, traffic impact fees rose; stormwater project costs increased; additional soil, construction and electrical consultants had to be hired; more county surveys had to be performed; and the anticipated cost of the construction contract increased, Griswold said. All those factors raised the construction cost from $7.5 million to $8.9 million, still under its original budget.
Aside from the contract with Thompson Bros., it will cost approximately $1.2 million for owner-supplied materials, including the county-funded scoreboard, lighting and turf. The remainder of the costs went into designing and developing the park’s plan, paying various consultants and surveying the property.
Almost all of the project’s funding comes from real estate excise taxes collected in Clark County when people sell property. The county did receive a $200,000 U.S. Soccer Federation grant to help buy artificial turf. Sports field coordinator Scot Brantley said that including the grant, it will cost approximately $688,000 to lay the turf.
29 subcontractors
Equipment will be arriving at the site between April 8 and 14, Ambuehl said, and construction officially starts April 11. The contract for the sports fields ends Dec. 31.
Thompson Bros. subcontracted with 29 other companies for various parts of the facility, including asphalt, concrete, fencing and the electrical system. Ambuehl said that 80 subcontracted workers and 15 Thompson Bros. employees will be involved on the project. The county will have one full-time inspector and a construction manager on-site for the construction’s duration.
“The most challenging portion is how visual the contract is,” he added.
After the equipment is assembled, Thompson Bros. will start building entrances, digging sediment ponds and bringing in straw wattles — large bales that help prevent excess water and other debris from running onto the surrounding streets and parking lots. A sediment fence surrounding the work site will be the most evident part of the project to drivers on 78th Street.
Next, crews will level the site by bringing in and taking out dirt. When the rougher earth work has been completed, they will install underground utilities, including stormwater and field drainage systems.
Griswold said that the stormwater facility has been the most difficult part of designing the park. When soil has good infiltration — its ability to absorb rainfall and irrigation — it doesn’t have to be planned for. When it doesn’t have good infiltration, which Griswold said is the case on this project, extra time and planning goes into creating a proper system.
When the ground has been prepared, work can start on pouring concrete, erecting fences and building the concessions stand at the axis of the fields. Ten to 15 subcontractors will work with Thompson Bros. on the concession stand.
Finally, crews will start leveling and installing drainage for the fields themselves, also sodding the second and third fields. The county contracted with FieldTurf on the artificial fields, which Thompson Bros. will install.
Ambuehl said landscapers will work from August — when the site will start looking mostly finished — to December.
Little League, soccer
Jilayne Jordan of Vancouver-Clark Parks and Recreation said that basic maintenance on the park will be paid for through the taxing district created in 2005 by Clark County voters. Additional maintenance will be performed and paid for by the sports leagues using the facilities.
The two primary user groups for the park will be Salmon Creek Little League and the Westside Soccer Club. Clark County Junior Baseball Association, Hazel Dell Metro League and other sports organizations will also use the fields. The county and King’s Way Christian Schools also signed a memorandum of understanding last December that allows the county to use the school for overflow parking in exchange for shared access to the sports fields.
There were also negotiations with some collegiate sport groups, but Brantley said those fell through because the facility won’t have enough seating capacity. Each field will have seating for approximately 50 people on regular bleachers, for a total capacity of 400 throughout the entire park.
For more information on the project, visit its website.
