Playgrounds Bounce Back

Jeanette Morrison admired a new poured-in-place rubber play surface at Scantlebury Park — and said some benches, a gate, and swing set chains should come next.

The Dixwell alder made that suggestion Wednesday afternoon as she toured the park’s improvements with City Engineer Giovanni Zinn, Chief Landscape Architect Katherine Jacobs, and Mayor Justin Elicker.

This summer the city is working on repairs and pouring rubber play surfaces for 20 park playgrounds including Shelton Triangle, Wooster Memorial Park, Lincoln-Bassett Park, Galvin Park, South Genesee Park, and Goffe Street Park.

“A lot of it is preventative maintenance to fix things before it gets to the point where it’s dangerous and we have to shut down the equipment,” Zinn said.

All of the parks except for Shelton Triangle already had rubber play surfaces. Shelton Triangle previously had wood chips underneath its equipment; the rubber play surface is safer and allows the space to be more wheelchair accessible.

The repairs for playground resurfacing cost $425,000. The money was spent as part of the $6.3 million Summer Reset initiative funded by federal American Rescue Plan pandemic-relief bill.

Zinn said one of the benefits of this investment is ​“we are able to do more this year and get ahead of things. So that we’re not just dealing with the critical issues this year for safety but really getting into some of that preventative stuff.”

Zinn and Jacobs estimated New Haven has over 160 parks and over 60 playgrounds.

Safety inspections for all the parks take place each winter so that repairs can begin in the spring and summer.

Jacobs spent this winter inspecting each park. She said she has spent most of her time this summer working on repairs at Scantlebury, Wooster Memorial, and Goffe Street parks.

Scantlebury is one of five New Haven parks that received an entirely new surface this summer.

“We’re trying to show some love to all the different parks across the city and all the different playgrounds where kids come outside to get exercise,” said Zinn.

Jacobs said they plan to wrap up pouring safety surfaces in the next few weeks. The pouring at Scantlebury took four days. She said the amount of time it takes to pour depends on the location.

New slides have been installed to replace cracked ones, platforms with rust and peeling coating have been restored, and bolts have been replaced or tightened.

At the top of the list for replacements and inspections is ensuring the safety surfaces are in good condition. ​“One of the most common ways kids get hurt is falling and having something cushiony, they might still get a bruise but it won’t be as serious of an injury,” Jacobs explained.

The surfaces should be cleaned throughout the year with sweeping; the rubber kernels will begin to wear down or get knocked out over time. Every two or three years they reapply the bonding agent that holds the rubber kernels together on weaker areas.

Eventually, this wear and tear can lead to large holes in the rubber which they work to patch up. Jacobs said the rubber play surfaces can last up to 20 years if maintained well. 

In Scantlebury Park, another issue for the surface was tree roots growing underneath. The tree was dying anyway. So Jacobs said they were able to remove the roots.

In other cases where healthy tree roots grow, they can prune back roots and put in root barriers to prevent them from growing back under the playground surfaces.

“With the impact of Covid, a lot of people are using outdoor equipment and spaces and so we have to make sure that they’re absolutely safe for everyone and spruce them up a bit because they got a lot more use in the pandemic and will continue to get a lot of use,” said Elicker.

Morrison asked about replacing swing set chains for Scantlebury.

Jacobs responded that replacing those chains is on the to-do list and relatively ​“simple” to get done.

Morrison also pointed out that there are many home daycares in the area that utilize the park playground. Without benches, she said providers have to either sit in cars or have to stand to watch kids.

Zinn and Jacobs said they are working on getting more seating installed around the park. They ordered the benches months ago and said they should be arriving soon. Jacobs showed Morrison the bench pads already in place for five benches coming in, two at the skatepark, one for the basketball courts, one for the splash pad, and one for the playground.

“This is an important piece for the community to see be updated. I’m glad that this money is going into use that we can really see on a daily basis” Morrison told them.

Finally, Morrison asked if there would be a replacement for the gate to the fenced-in playground that had broken off. Morrison and Zinn both were unsure if a gate is necessary and tried to approach it from a parent’s perspective.

Morrison praised the work done on the park. ​“Now,” she said, ​“this park is holistic for everyone.”