Skatebowl at McLennan Park to be permanently closed
Ground movement on former landfill site has created ‘unpredictability’
KITCHENER — The city has decided to permanently close the skatebowl at McLennan Park because the ground underneath is settling “unpredictably” and causing an “unsafe environment for continued use,” an advisory sent out Friday states.
“Creating an active park on a former landfill site is a unique concept for Kitchener that brings with it continued learnings,” says Niall Lobley, the city’s director of parks and cemeteries.
Lobley was on hand at the park Friday morning to answer questions and said the uniqueness of the site has caused challenges over the last few years beyond those that were expected.
The city spent about $1.6 million last year to remediate the park’s Great Lawn after site inspections revealed landfill gas was collecting in a subsurface drainage system and interfering with the function of the existing collection system.
McLennan Park is located over top the region’s former landfill site at 901 Ottawa St. S. It’s operated by the city under a lease agreement with the region and offers various amenities such as a splash pad, basketball courts, a playground area and trails for hiking and biking.
The skatebowl was installed at grade back in 2011, Lobley said, however the ground around it has settled several inches in some spots.
“This side of the bowl is slipping down and away,” he said, pointing to a large split on the one side.
The city had previously ad-
dressed cracking and separation in the concrete, however this past April, staff noticed more significant issues than normal and initiated an engineering assessment. “Several of the foundation piers meant to support and stabilize the bowl appear to be punching through the concrete and approximately half the bowl is sinking and pulling away from the other half, causing the whole bowl to rotate. These shifting forces have resulted in an increased number of stress fractures and other structural defects, posing a significant safety concern to users,” the advisory states.
“When we have cracks opening up and, in particular, when they’re this size, that’s just too much,” said Lobley. “We know the reason this is happening can’t be easily fixed because it’s the ground underneath it.”
The easiest way to understand it is to think about your kitchen garbage can, Lobley added.
“You put the garbage in it and you press it down and you go back three days later and you can push it down a bit further, and essentially that’s what we’re sitting on. And so it’s been compacted, and as it breaks down it will continue to sink.”
The same process is happening in other areas of the park, but many other features “float” and therefore sink at the same rate, which doesn’t result in as much damage, Lobley said.
“It’s just when we’ve got these assets tied in on a foundation that’s causing this.”
The city says the skatebowl is well-used, but if left in place it would require ongoing repairs at significant cost, with no guarantee they’d last.
For now, the space will be filled in with a clay cap and covered in topsoil. The skate street course and all other amenities at the park remain open to the public.
Replacing the skatebowl with a similar structure or another park amenity will likely require political will moving forward.
“What we’ve suggested is we’ll go back out to the community,” said Lobley.
“It’s been 10 years since we went out to the community for the skatebowl and the planning of the park the first time around and this is an opportunity for us to go back out and say, ‘What is the community’s need?’ I think council is very supportive of making sure we don’t just take it out and forget about it, but that we leave something in its place.”
The city highlights its continued investment in recreational facilities for skateboarding, including new facilities at Upper Canada Park, and as part of the plans for the new RBJ Schlegel Park.
Other skateboard bowl features can be found at The Aud and Fischer Park.
Lobley said the new skatebowl being installed in Upper Canada Park is valued at approximately $350,000. The cost to install the McLennan Park skatebowl and adjacent skate course was about $420,000.
Work will begin to remove the skatebowl in September. Temporary fencing has been erected around the site.