work starts

Things are now getting very exciting. Construction works commence this week - fences should go up Friday with electrical services excavations over the weekend.

The heavy machinery will be on site mid next week to do the bulk excavation.

How much of the original design is included? Thankfully we have managed to keep all the skate elements shown in the last released design and have managed to find the necessary savings through deleting the climbing wall, shelters, sports level lighting, some of the seating and probably some of the signage. We do hope that these will be able to looked at again in the near future, which of course is always dependent on other competing budget priorities for the Government.

Soon we will start to plan launching the facility with the Canberra Skateboarding Association and the Woden Youth Service. As always we welcome your suggestions for this event.

Edited to Add: Contracts are being finalised for the successful tenderers on the skate park component at the moment and an announcement will be made as soon as we are able. We don't think you will be disappointed.

It is busy behind the scenes

It has been a little quiet on the blog this past 3 weeks, however, this does not mean there is nothing happening. The project is in a phase where not a great deal can be said for confidentiality reasons. Please be assured packages are designed and are being tendered with two already issued and one closed. Once successful tenderers for each package are confirmed they will be announced here.

An official start up event for the construction project is hoped to take place on the 10th of August. Further information on this will also be posted once confirmation is received.

Development Approval and Construction tenders

The design for the park is with the ACT Planning Authority for development approval. Plans for both the youth facility and other works which include upgrading the pond and other recreation facilities for the park have been submitted at the same time. Both will be posted on the ACTPLA website sometime very soon.

If you do take a look on the ACTPLA website you will see that the plans are for the facility still with all the elements we have identified as may not be built for budget reasons. By having these in the DA now they can be built as funding is available without the need for a further approval process, provided it isn't too far into the future.

Expressions of Interest have also been called for construction tendering - with an add placed in the Canberra Times last week and the week before. We expect to have quite a bit of interest in this project from construction companies and will be ensuring that the company selected to construct the skate elements will be very competent in this field. The project is being broken up into a number of tender processes related to each of the construction areas - such as earthworks, electrical, landscaping, general concreting and skate area concreting etc.

In the meantime the plans are being finalised in packages that work with this tendering process.

Priorities

Thank you for your feedback on priorities. The project reference group also met last week to discuss your feedback and provide some direction to PCL. This was then taken to a meeting of the project managers, designers and government agencies last Thursday.

The project managers have been advised that the least important elements, the ones which will not be built if the budget does not allow, are the climbing structure, video and ipod dock, shelters, some landscaping, solar panels, some seating, and most lighting.

We hope the tenders come in at a price that allows us to complete the project as originally planned - but at least we have a strategy, which everyone seems to agree on, if it doesn't.

Top 5

In a previous post we discussed the project being costed at more than the budget . The cost planners have now taken a look and agree that we need to identify some savings. The reference group, PCL, Convic and Manteena have all been considering what is the most and least important to keep and welcome your ideas as well.

Please let us know - by a comment on this post - your top 5 and your bottom 5 things in the design.

Melbourne hints

The trip to visit youth recreation spaces in Melbourne was a very worthwhile way to spend a couple of days.

The main tips to come out of the meetings with people who have built and run similar spaces are:

• it isn't all about the skaters though they can make the most noise (hear that skaters?) make sure there is enough happening for other people
• make sure parents are catered for with spaces where they can keep an eye on things without being in their kids' face
• make the ipod dock as vandal resistant as possible and set a max volume
• check if lights on the performing space are necessary or if events will happen in daylight most of the time
• get some skaters/riders to look over the plans carefully and make sure they are happy with the design
• provide shade
• get some programs and clinics going for when it opens
• consider finding someone with skater cred to undertake the maintenance and be the main contact for the park
• look at ways to have refreshments at the space rather than everyone needing to head off to the shops for something to eat and drink
• get the youth services deeply involved in the running of the space
• don't try to drop skate terms in conversation because skaters will think you are trying too hard to be cool when you obviously are not
• check and clean the space daily and clean it well - keep it looking good
• listen to the users and promote a good attitude and culture for the space
• talk to schools about running programs for students - safe use etc
• skaters may want full access 100% of the time without allowing for other uses such as events (sound right?) and this will need to be managed
• create provision for temporary artwork displays
• make it look good for filming because apparently skaters like to film, a lot
• try to have more than one performance space

That covers the main points. It was interesting that most of the issues that came up were around how to manage the space once it was opened and that it was good to have a balance of structured activities and helpful supervision without being around all the time. This is something we had not given much thought to yet and welcome any suggestions Canberra young people have.

Visit to Melbourne

Later this week Lea Durie from PCL will be travelling to Melbourne to visit youth recreation facilities in Geelong and the city and to talk with Convic and relevant Council staff. Information gathered from this visit will inform the design development and construction quality control for this project.

If there is anything in particular you think should be looked at on this trip please let us know.

Photos will be posted here next week. None will be of Lea trying to ride a skateboard.

As a P.S. - two new links have been added to the side bar - Why Skateparks leads to an interesting article on the value of these facilities.