Final Post

This will be my final post on this blog because the park has been opened to the public this weekend.
Park postcode: IP33 3SZ
The last two days it's been heaving with boards, bikes and scooters enjoying their new playground. I spent both Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday skating mostly the bowl, which is a lot smoother than when I skated it at the end of March with permission from the builders!
I haven't spent a great deal of time skating the park, but the number of users on the park all day pointed towards a positive reaction.
For any further posts from me (in which I am sure the park will feature) please follow my continuing blog:

LINK TO MY BLOG

So here are a few final pictures for you. 

Thanks for reading.

Paul

Photo: Simon Pickering

Photo: Simon Pickering

Photo: Simon Pickering

Photo: Simon Pickering

Photo: Simon Pickering

#skateboarding #uk #ukskateboarding #burystedmunds #concrete #skatepark #new #suffolk

Visit 7 - Not Long To Go Now!

Rain was in the air as I entered the site this afternoon. Work continues to progress well, the completion of the park is on schedule and expected to be open at the end of April with the official opening jam to be held no Sunday 11th May. 

The reclaimed banked corner originally outside of the park fence is now filled with earth and was being skilfully sculpted with a mini digger.
 Pretty much all the coping and metal section has been welded in place around the park area and most of the ground work has been completed on the banks, 1/4 pipe and corners. These should be poured this week.

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Both flat bars have been welded. The finishing of the joins will be completed soon as will the ends of the handrail down the steps. These have now been poured too.

The up down ledge and pyramid/driveway surrounding it are near complete with only one side of the pyramid needing to be poured. 

I'll be visiting the site again on Wednesday along with an architect to perform a quality inspection so I'll be posting another update very soon.

Visit 6 - Bricks and Mortar

A quick update following a visit to site on Thursday.

Anyone present at the final planning meeting may remember a minor disappointment when we were told that the brick stencil would not be applied to the red bank next to the steps due to the final aesthetic of the edges of each face. This as I said, was only a minor setback and for me, knowing the designers were concerned with the potential quality issue gave me further confidence in the builders giving a high quality finish to the park.

I'd noticed a pallet of red bricks had been delivered on my last visit and since then I have been wondering what they were for - you don't generally use bricks for structural work on this kind of job. As concrete usually covers the blockwork there is no need to use expensive  attractive bricks when you can use fewer, less expensive blocks. And I couldn't remember any actual brickwork on the plans. Well...

Remember the semicircular wall at the top of the right bank looking from the gate which was planned to be red concrete? The builders decided that as they couldn't give us the brick stencil on the bank, they would face the wall with red bricks instead. Personally I am very pleased that they went ahead with this. The bricks look spot on and the Mortar has been set close to the face of the bricks to give a smooth but textured ride. The banks on either side are also in.

The main up-down ledge has been poured and the bases were getting a final shaping before concreting as I was looking around. The corner bank to the left of the big Jersey barrier has been completed and work is heading towards the manual pads with rebar mesh already in place.

The entire area of the park has now been marked out and the council agreeing to our request for the reclaiming of the grass bank outside the original park fence has really worked to our advantage and given us a considerable extension to the footprint of the park. 

Simon Pickering, council Youth Officer in charge of the skate park project has managed to arrange for some walls to be constructed around the park so that artists can concentrate their talents away from the riding surfaces in the park. This has been agreed because the application of spray paints to this young concrete may promote a thin de-lamination of the the surface concrete when wheels repeatedly pass over it. 
I think we all understand that we will never completely stop the tags and such from appearing, and I'm sure that most users of the park are of the same opinion as me and not against good quality painting like the work on the old wooden park, but seeing that there will be a number of places dedicated to larger artworks this will hopefully discourage the painting of riding surfaces. 

I have been reliably informed that on the parks completion, responsibility will be handed over to the council so that final quality and safety inspections can be conducted, hopefully leading to the opening of the park to the public shortly after. 
The park should be open to the public at the end of April. 

Please remember that the site is currently closed to the public because it is not safe. 
The fences are there to keep EVERYONE out, and the KEEP OUT signs are not there to pretty-up the fence.
   

Visit 5 - Glimpses of The Future

As the projected completion date approaches, my excitement built before todays visit to the site as I was sure with the fine weather that progress was going to be significant and so, this post is quite a long one!

On arrival, I could see the centre piece of the park - a high, up and down ledge with a pyramid base has been shaped in earth and the boxing to mould the ledge is in place ready for poring. The bank on the right hand side of the park has also been shaped and the square coping is in place. This includes the rainbow extension. 

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The pair of manual pads on the left hand side of the park have been pored. The gap between them looks reasonable. Please bare in mind that the base of the park is not yet in place so the pads look extremely high at the moment. Take a look at the last photo in this section, the wooden baton running round the base of the corner represents the level of the floor and true height of the pads.

 The re-bar was being put down round the corner at the top end of the left side and the coping is in place so I imaging this will be the next section to be pored.

As I walked around site It struck me that I was already sighting potential lines all over the park. Let me tell you this place has lines for days!

All the platform sections around the bowl have now been finished off to a very high standard and I am told the surround will be turfed not seeded when landscaping is completed. This decision was a wise one. From experience, seeded surrounds don't grow quickly enough and these parks get very dusty until the grass grows enough to stop the wind erosion and wheels cutting corners. 

Bowl floor's not pored yet

When talking to the team on site it was mentioned that a number of people have been seen/found on site in the last week or so. 
Let me lay this down plain and simple....

1. This is a building site. It is dangerous.
2. If you inadvertently damage ongoing work, it will have to be replaced. This will cost extra. This use of funds could result in other facilities on site to have funding cut. 

Don't be the cause of our new park becoming less than we deserve. 

I have been given permission by the council and Wheelscape to be on site while they are present and supplied with the appropriate clothing to keep me safe during my visits.
Please follow this blog or follow Hardcore Hobbies or Bury Skatepark Experience Facebook pages for detailed updates and by all means go stare through the fence in anticipation, but please stay off site.    

It's not going to be long now.