Thank you to the Rumson Community for supporting this project and all of our neighbors for their patience throughout construction. It is exciting to see the final stages of work draw to a close. Over the past two weeks, a majority of the improvements have been completed with the installation of sod, playground equipment, flag pole installation, E. River Road parking lot paving, and parking lot line striping.
The park will remain closed to the public to allow final fence installation, replacement of park benches, and 9/11 monument installation. Landscape plantings will occur once weather conditions permit in the spring. Piping Rock Park will officially reopen in the Spring 2019.
All of the utility and infrastructure elements of the park construction are substantially complete. Over the next few days sod will be delivered and installed throughout the park and the playground installation is also underway.
Base course paving of the E. River Road parking lots is scheduled to be completed within the next two weeks.
Overall site cleanup and fixture installation will continue as weather conditions permit.
Even with inclement weather work at Piping Rock Park has continued forward! The on-site drainage installation is complete and most of the irrigation system has been installed. The arched backstop has been set and the concrete for the team player and spectator areas has been poured.
The curbing and sidewalks around the backstop have been installed with additional concrete pours scheduled this week for the balance of the walkways. The underlying drainage and curb edging for the playground has been installed, with a mid-December delivery expected for the equipment.
Weather permitting, the site will be prepared for topsoil installation over the next two weeks. The sod delivery and installation is currently expected mid-December, again weather permitting.
Last week, new concrete curbing and concrete sidewalks were built along Forrest Avenue.
This improvement will provide a new ADA accessible route into the park from the Forrest Avenue parking.
The addition of the sidewalk also eliminates the need to walk behind parked cars to access the park,
a significant safety improvement over the pre-construction condition.
We also completed the underground recharge system along E. River Road, which was tested during recent rainfall and performed well. Approximately two-thirds of the on-site drainage has been installed, the balance of the drainage system will be installed in the coming weeks. The drainage installation was staged to accommodate the storage of topsoil on-site. With portions of the drainage system complete, the irrigation system can now be installed in those same areas of the park. Once the irrigation is done, those areas can be topsoiled and prepared to receive sod.
Happily, the test results from the soil samples collected from under and around the underground heating oil storage tank came back favorable. All samples came back well below acceptable NJDEP levels. The tank has been removed from the site and no further action is required by the Borough or Contractor.
Starting Friday, November 2nd the Piping Rock Park Tennis Courts, 911 Memorial Area, and E. River Road Parking Lot will be closed to public access while work is focused around those areas of the park. We do not anticipate reopening those areas to the public until construction is complete. Please visit Victory Park or Rogers Park for tennis court facilities. As a reminder, online reservations for the tennis courts are available at https://rumsonrecreation.tennisbookings.com/.
The Piping Rock Park plan incorporates many of the community suggestions made during the feedback sessions. A 180’ x 330’ multi-purpose natural grass playing field to accommodate soccer, field hockey, lacrosse, and practice football will be constructed on the western side of the park. The existing baseball/softball field will be rotated 45° and relocated approximately 60’ to the west to become a 46/60 baseball/softball field with a 250’ outfield, accommodating all user groups except the “Pony” League, which currently plays at Riverside Park.
The existing tennis courts will remain where they are, and the existing 9/11 Memorial near East River Road will remain in its current location. The KDM 911 Memorial will be relocated to align with the new baseball/softball field and will be prominently featured as you enter Piping Rock Park from Carton Street. While construction is underway, the memorial will be stored in the Department of Public Works building. A new playground will be installed on the west side of the tennis courts, just north of the current playground.
Walking paths will traverse the park connecting the East River Road, Carton Street and Forrest Avenue entrances. All the facilities, including walking paths, will meet current American with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards.
The existing hedges on East River Road and vegetative buffer and fences between the Ridge Road properties are being preserved. The East River Road parking lot will be expanded to provide additional parking with ADA-compliant parking facilities. The Carton Street parking lot will be reconfigured to accommodate the new field layout. Traffic circulation will be changed to one-way to make for an overall safer environment.
Over the past two weeks, Precise Construction has made significant progress with the park improvements.
The multi-purpose field and baseball/softball outfield has been constructed to sub-grade elevation and the
retaining wall along Forrest Avenue has been built. New concrete curbing and sidewalk will be installed along
the Forrest Avenue parking area. The drainage recharge system is currently under construction near East River Road.
With the removal of the “hill”, where the former playground was located, we uncovered the remnants of Peter’s Piping Rock Restaurant.
Nearly 8 truckloads of brick and concrete debris was removed from the site.
In addition, an underground heating
oil storage tank was discovered next to the tennis courts. The tank was emptied, removed, and will also be disposed of properly.
While these discoveries were unanticipated, they did not disrupt progress and were handled properly.
Not all the “discoveries” were troublesome, a number of bottles were found on-site. The most relevant is a Red Rock Cola,
which was bottled right on site in Rumson. The bottles will be preserved at Borough Hall in the George Moss History Room.
The Contractor has continued site preparations with the stripping and stockpiling of topsoil for reuse and initial stages of rough grading.
The Carton Street parking lot will be closed to public access on or about October 15th..
The East River Road parking lot will remain open to the public while the tennis courts are open (as a reminder overnight and all-day parking is prohibited).
Removal of the existing park equipment is nearly complete. The contractor has installed soil erosion measures and temporary work zone fencing to close portions of the park.
Over the next few weeks, installation of the retaining walls, drainage system, and leveling the field areas will occur.
Please check back for project updates.
Selective tree trimming and removal started today along with some site clearing and equipment demolition. Selective site clearing will continue this week as weather permits.
As a reminder the park is closed while the construction project is underway. Temporary construction fencing will be installed to protect work areas from the public.
The tennis courts, East River Road parking lot, and 9/11 Memorial off East River Road will remain open while construction activity is focused in other areas of the park.
80 East River Road
Rumson NJ 07760
TEL 732.842.3300
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