Update for November 25-26:

Leddy Arena entrance road will be closed through to end of construction day today with flaggers guiding traffic onto the exit road. It’ll be closed again tomorrow briefly while they repave.

Next week, construction will begin on a new maintenance garage at Leddy Park to serve as the new home base for the Parks’ Trees and Grounds divisions. We expect the impact to the park to be minimal during construction, notably:

• The footprint of the construction site will be contained to the area immediately around the existing maintenance building;
• There will be a brief 2-3 day detour to-and-from the parking lot along the arena entrance road while a trench is dug for the new building’s water service. We will post an update here when we have finalized the dates of the detour; and
• There will be additional vehicles coming to and from the project site carrying equipment and materials.

As always, please be mindful of construction vehicles moving through the area and thanks in advance for your patience!

What exactly is being built?

The new building will be about the same size as the existing building and will be sited approximately 30-feet southeast of the existing concrete-block maintenance building. It will consist of one heated garage bay, a heated office space, and two cold garage bays for storing vehicles, materials, and equipment.

The existing maintenance building will remain in-place. There will be some structural work done to ensure the longevity of the building.  The interior of the building will then be renovated and turned into cold-storage for vehicles and equipment.

Why are we constructing a new building?

Our trees and grounds crews currently operate out of two buildings: the Leddy and North Beach Maintenance Buildings. Both buildings are in need of significant structural repairs. The Leddy Maintenance building is a remnant storage building from when the Park was a rendering and fertilizer plant.

The North Beach Maintenance Building was constructed in the 1980s with the help of high-school volunteers and was not designed for long-term use. Because of this, the building’s foundation heaves and shifts annually. Additionally, the base of the building is beginning to rot from frequent contact with rain and snow.

Furthermore, neither building is long enough to adequately accommodate the bucket trucks now used by our City’s tree crews, nor are the garage doors of adequate height to provide safe clearance for these same vehicles. By constructing a slightly longer building with taller entry doors, we will protect these valuable City vehicles from the elements.

Has there been any public outreach about this?

Yes! We had a station dedicated to the maintenance building at our Leddy Park Public Workshop on April 9, 2019. An estimated 80-100 residents attended that meeting and had the opportunity to interact with staff and ask questions about the project.

Check back here for updates on the project.