Wood chips at playgrounds may be phased out
Accessibility a big factor in search for replacement options
Diane Foster remembers how wood chips at her local park made playtime with her grandson a challenge.
The chips may look solid enough for a wheelchair but she found they were anything but.
“They are not stable enough to support a power chair with an adult going to the park with a grandchild,” said Foster, co-chair for the St. Catharines accessibility advisory committee.
“I can’t tell you how often I got stuck trying to assist with my grandson at the park.”
When the city’s parks department recently asked the committee what it thought of its latest plans for a playground on Bunting Road, Foster had reason to speak out against the chips.
“There are many adults like me who have children or grandchildren who are in a wheelchair and who want to go and play with the kids.”
St. Catharines parks department is heeding the advice of Foster and others, including its own staff. It wants to do away with wood chips in playgrounds going forward and replace them with more accessible options.
It’s proposing city council defers plans to build a new playground at Douglas Park until next year so the department can update a request for proposals to include accessible surfacing.
The city had published a request for proposals for the Bunting Road playground on May 31 and received two submissions by the June 21 deadline. But a staff report to council for Monday says it was during that time that staff were told wood chips — an acceptable industry standard for accessible surfacing — were “lacking in its actual performance.”
In particular, it says the small wheels on wheelchairs and mobility walkers for children can’t navigate through wood chips without considerable help from a caregiver.
Staff cancelled the RFP — the two submissions didn’t meet the requirements anyway — and plan to re-evaluate the playground’s design features and surfacing options if council approves the move.
Phil Cristi, director of parks, recreation and culture services, said wood chips are the cheapest option for playgrounds but the industry does have many other options out there, including rubberized surfaces which can be found in a handful of city parks.
He said with new technology and innovations, there may also be a cost effective, cutting-edge play surface the city hasn’t seen yet. The proposed new tender for the Douglas Park playground will ask for different play surface ideas.
“We’re continually looking at things in a different way to help improve what we do,” Cristi said. “We’re certainly appreciative of the feedback that we’ve received from members of the public and from our accessibility committee and also our staff who have to deal with the maintenance of these parks day to day.”
He said one of the issues the parks department has been struggling with over the past few years is not just the fact the wood chips are not accessible for all, but that they seem to allow a lot of tall weeds to grow through them.
The weeds keep families away and tax resources so he’s hoping new playground surfaces will eliminate that issue, too.
Foster said in her experience, the rubberized surfaces are the best option for playgrounds.
“You don’t get stuck. You can motor over them easily. You don’t have to worry about mud on your tires or taking stones home because they are all embedded in the tread in the tires.”
She said they’re also a benefit for parents who bring children in strollers to the park.
“We push for universal design,” she said.
“It’s not just the accessibility for people with disabilities, it’s a universal design so it will accommodate everybody, whether you’re two or 102.”