Parks building project

Tentative date for competition set for Sept. 15

While initial work already is under way, full-blown construction to replace the district’s decaying parks storage trailer is slated to kick off Monday near the Donald W. Reynolds Community Non-profit Center and Incline Middle School.

On Wednesday, Incline Village General Improvement District Parks Superintendent Steven Phillips said preliminary work on the IVGID Recreation Crew Building, including best management practice construction and contractor staging, began this week at the site where the 800 square foot parks storage trailer resides, at 948 Incline Way.

“Staging means the (contractor) brings in its own construction trailer and some supplies, basically just getting prepared to start the work,” Phillips said.

The IVGID Board of Trustees on April 9 approved almost $900,000 in various contracts for construction of the building, including a $757,900 construction contract to Bison Construction; $75,800 (just above 10 percent of the construction contract to the project as a contingency balance; and $27,000 for additional construction services to Blakely, Johnson and Ghusn Architecture and Engineering, the project’s original designers.

The project also takes into account $35,300 for construction management, inspection and services (which includes district staff time), for a grand project total of $896,000.
According to the project’s plans, the 5,725 square-foot, two-story building will provide ample storage and office space for the district’s Public Works and Parks and Recreation departments, something the current building, which is almost seven times smaller, hasn’t been able to do for years, Phillips said.

“The trailer was meant as a temporary facility, something like 13 or 14 years ago,” he said. “It’s basically just the size of a construction trailer, more of a temporary shelter.”
A groundbreaking event for the project takes place at 9:30 a.m. today at 948 Incline Way.

While IVGID Public Works staff is excited to kick off what they say is a much-needed improvement, it may come as a slight inconvenience this month to area residents, including students at the middle school.

Because plans call for a much larger building to replace the current trailer, district Engineering Manager Brad Johnson said extensive work must also be done to ensure the building enjoys adequate underground utility and fire service.

Work on a four-inch fire service line and other utilities will take place underneath the walking path between the Donald W. Reynolds parking lot and the Incline Middle School sports fields, a popular walking path among the avid Incline walking population and for patrons of the softball and baseball fields north of the path.

That path will be rerouted for the duration of the underground work, which is tentatively is expected to be finished by the end of the month, Johnson said.
“For a short time, while the fire service line is being installed, traffic also will be rerouted on that path in front of the bleachers,” Johnson said. “It will be short, probably for only a two- or three-day period. That route of the path will remain the same for the vast majority of the construction. The point is we want the public to know and not be surprised.”

The path also will be slightly rerouted as it approaches the project and curves south, Johnson said. That reroute, designed so residents can steer clear of construction, will last for the project’s duration.

Johnson said detour signs and orange fences will be in place to clearly show the public where the reroutes occur.

“This shouldn’t be a big impact,” Johnson said. “We’re not sending people all the way around the block, just a little bit out of the way of the normal path.”

While dates remain tentative, Johnson said the entire project should be complete by Sept. 15, a full month before the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency grading season ends.