Because of a delay in renovation work, Royal Heights Veterans’ Memorial Park is temporarily open to the public. The park has been opened since July 24, in since the heavy rains that fell throughout the month of July, led to moisture conditions that made the ground unsuitable for work to be done on the structures and paths in the park.
High moisture conditions in the clay-rich soil in Royal Heights contributed to erosion of base work in place under the pathways in the park. The original plan was to resurface the base work, but that has been postponed because of the moist soil conditions.
Parks manager Rod March noted the water table in the park is sitting about three to four feet below the ground surface, and that “it would be totally irresponsible for us to try and put an asphalt pathway in there, knowing it would collapse.”
A temporary walking path has been in place at Royal Heights, since July 24. The wet subsurface of the path has been damaged, due to the excessive moisture in the ground. A media release from the City of Estevan states that the circumstances are out of the control of the city, and that the city’s park division doesn’t want to build a path on a substandard base.
The installation of additional benches, landscaping work and the construction of a play structure base are on hold, until the pathways in the park are completed.
“As soon as we can get the pathways done, we’re going to put rubber fall protection around the play structure. We’re going to install some benches, and put some turf there, so it will look a lot nicer when it’s done,” said March, “Those pathways have to be done before any of that, though. A lot of people with mobility issues have expressed concerns over those pathways for years. That’s why council decided to get it done, and why we’re doing it now.”
The work on Royal Heights, which started in June and was originally supposed to take two weeks, ended up taking closer to eight weeks.
The temporary path will stay in place until conditions become ideal for continued work at the park. At that point, when the area dries enough for work, the city will resume base compaction and asphalt surfacing, and the park will be closed again.
“I must say, there’s been a lot of positive comments (about the temporary reopening),” said March. “We just put some picnic tables and stuff out there. As soon as we can get the equipment in there, we will. It just jiggles like a bowl of jelly when you bring anything heavy in there.”
