More than 18 months after voters approved a $64.3 million facelift for Riverfront Park, the city is preparing to start turning dirt there.

City of Spokane Parks and Recreation Department Director Leroy Eadie says contractors could break ground before summer’s end on the first project, the Howard Street Bridge replacement. The city is soliciting bids from contractors for that project now and hopes to select a builder in July. Meanwhile, another project, the recreational ice rink, is scheduled to go out for bid next month, he says.

“We’re finishing up the construction documents now, and we’ll have this out to bid in about two to three weeks,” Eadie says.

The estimated construction cost of the Howard Street Bridge is $6.6 million. 

“Our goal is that we want them to start work by the end of summer,” Eadie says.

The Spokane office of the engineering firm CH2M Hill Inc. drafted a design calling for the complete demolition and rebuild of the bridge.

The planned Howard Street South Channel Bridge, which is part of the overall Howard Street Bridge rebuild project will enable pedestrians to walk just above the surface of the Spokane River. That portion of the bridge will have benches for viewing the river, Eadie says.

“That’s the bridge that’s in the worst shape,” Eadie says. “That’s the one that gets the most pedestrian traffic. It’s the main gateway into the park.”

The new bridge will be located in the same spot, Eadie says.

Meanwhile, bids will be sought for the construction of a new recreational ice rink—called an ice ribbon because of its meandering, trail-like design—in July. 

The ice ribbon and accompanying skating pond will be located in the current grassy area south of the Skyride facility. The ribbon is slated to be 650 feet long and 16 feet wide with slight increases and decreases in elevation, Eadie says.

Edmonton, Alberta-based Stantec Inc., a publicly traded design and consulting company with offices in Spokane, designed the ice ribbon as well as upgrades to the Skyride facility and ticket office, Eadie says.

He says his staff hopes to award the contract for that project in August. It carries an estimated construction cost of $8.2 million.

Despite some unforeseen delays, the voter-approved $64.3 million bond measure from November 2014 calling for an overhaul of the aging park is moving forward, Eadie says.

He acknowledges the project has proven to be more complex than the Park Board and parks and recreation staff first imagined.

“These are complicated projects in an area that has a lot of history and a lot of environmental conditions to work through,” Eadie says.

He says what also makes the project more complex is the fact the city is using multiple designers for different projects in the park.

“We’re getting multiple looks at this from different designers. It’s not just one designer who is determining how the park is going to look,” Eadie says, noting that was a “conscious decision” by the park board.

Riverfront Park, which hasn’t seen major improvements since it was constructed for Expo ’74, attracts between 2 million and 2.5 million visitors per year, Eadie says.

Beginning this year, the annual “Pig Out In the Park” event, running Aug. 31 to Sept. 5, will be held on Havermale Island in the grassy area known as the Central Meadow, which also serves as home to center court during Hoopfest, Eadie says.

The park is being reconfigured to host more activities and events on Havermale Island, which is most commonly accessed by the Howard Street Bridge both north and south of the island, Eadie says.

“One of the things that we’ve known for many years is that we’ve outgrown the south end of the park,” Eadie says. “The master plan determined that the better place was to bring people to the center of the park and have a large plaza connected to the pavilion.”

Construction of the new $23 million centerpiece U.S. Pavilion event center, a central plaza conservation area, playground improvements, gardens, and surface parking improvements will begin in 2018.

After the Howard Street Bridge and ice ribbon, the next project going out for construction bids early next year will involve the demolition of the current Looff Carrousel building and the construction of a new one to house the carrousel. 

 “That’s about 60 percent designed right now,” Eadie says. NAC Architecture is completing design work of the new building. Construction is expected to start in February 2017, he says.

Fianna Dickson, communications manager for the parks and recreation department, says NAC is designing a building that will make the carousel more visible to passersby.

“Right now you can’t really see the carousel in that dark, wooden building,” Dickson says. “So the goal is to really highlight the carousel.”

The carousel itself will be moved closer to the river, Eadie says.

“What that does is give us more queuing room to the south, and you don’t have people queuing between the carousel and the river,” Eadie says. “It’s the most visited attraction in the park.”

He says the carousel draws 500,000 riders per year.

The carousel is scheduled to operate through the 2016 holiday season for private parties and events.

“We didn’t want to take out two holiday seasons because the carousel’s a big rental facility,” Eadie says. “It books up completely for holiday season.”

With a year-long estimated construction time schedule, the carousel most likely won’t be open for private rental parties and functions during the 2017 holiday season, he says.

Projects on Havermale Island will begin in 2018, and most of the project work on Canada Island and the park’s north bank section will be constructed in 2019, Eadie say.

The parks department and the utilities division are forming an interdepartmental agreement in which utilities would head up the replacement of the Howard Street midchannel bridge, also known as the Blue Bridge, Eadie says.

Most of the Blue Bridge replacement cost would be funded through the utility department’s budget, although promenade amenities would be funded with park bond dollars, he said.

Eadie says city officials still believe the final work on the park can be completed by the end of 2019.

“We do a lot of environmental analysis prior, but everybody knows you that until you really break ground and start turning that dirt, we may run into some obstacles,” Eadie says.

The Spokane Parks & Recreation Department is holding a construction kickoff for the community on July 8 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the southwest corner of the park near the metal, Bloomsday runners.