Rolling Dunes Improvement Projects

Project Type:
Parks
Project Status: 
Under Construction

For project timeline, Click Here. 

 

The Rolling Dunes Improvements Project is going to be expand the existing outdoor tennis and pickleball courts and upgrade accessibility features such as the parking area, curb ramp, and access route, at the neighborhood park. The court expansion will increase the current facility from 14,400 square feet to 18,600 square feet. Adding 2 new pickleball courts.

We will be expanding the court and fence 30’ to the east so we can construct two additional standard 30 by 60-foot pickleball courts with fixed nets. A 120-foot by 30-foot site will be prepared for the construction of these new courts. After the construction of the new pickleball courts is complete, the entire new and existing court surfaces will be resurfaced. 

Once the court is done, we will begin work on replacing the current picnic shelter and bathrooms. The bathrooms will consist of two single user fully ADA compliant restrooms and one single user restroom. The design of the facility provides one additional room that can be used as dedicated storage for pickleball equipment, such as portable nets and squeegees. The building also features a full-length mechanical room so that City staff has access to the plumbing and electrical panels, as well as the ability to store janitorial supplies. The new shelter will be an open timber structure to help with sight lines through the shelter and park. 

The project is to be paid in part by a grant from the Land & Water Conserciation Fund run by the National Park Service.

Status Updates

October 18th

Our fencing contractor, Oregon Fence, completed the installation of the perimeter fencing for the court expansion area. With the fencing complete, our Parks crew removed the orange temporary fencing and barricades from the tennis/pickleball court.

We met onsite with our court surfacing professional. We discussed a number of options for lining out the courts. However, our largest concern is the weather forecast and time of year. For the crack repairs and surfacing material to cure properly, we really need to have warmer weather including having the sun in a higher position in the sky. With the lower angle (sun position) we are not able to get enough radiate heat to warm the court surfaces. We will keep our fingers crossed that a 5–7 day dry period is still on the horizon.

October 11th

Our fencing contractor was on site this week and installed the new posts along the perimeter of the expansion area. The contractor is scheduled to return next week and install the fencing fabric material.

We have also been in contract with our court surfacing professional. The contractor is just wrapping up a major project, so timing could not be better. If our weather holds, the court surfacing contractor may be able to complete the installation of the pickleball nets, surfacing of the new expansion area, resurfacing of the existing courts, and striping of the courts before the end of October.

October 4th

The City has received a proposed court layout from our consultant. The proposed layout shows two permanent dedicated pickleball courts and four pickleball courts that will need to use the portable nets. The west tennis court will be marked for tennis only as requested by the tennis players. We are currently reviewing color schemes.

 

 

September 27th

With the completion of removing the undesirable soils, import of clean sand, compaction of the fill material, our contractor Ray Wells, Inc brought in the base rock (1”-0), graded and compacted the rock in preparation of paving the court extension. With great progress and a weather window, the contractor paved the court expansion area on Tuesday, September 24th. 

With paving completed, we have decided to leave the temporary construction access road until spring 2025. We will need to utilize the temporary road in order to demolish the existing restroom and picnic shelter in February 2025 and the installation of the new restroom facility in March 2025.

With the court paved, the fencing contractor will be arriving on October 7th to begin to core drill and set the fence posts for the perimeter fencing of the new court area. This work is anticipated to take three days. The fencing contractor will then return and install the cyclone fencing material October 15th and 16th. We are still in the process of scheduling the court surfacing and the resurfacing of the existing courts. This work is highly weather dependent and needs to happen after the fencing is complete.

September 20th

This week, crews from Ray Wells, Inc completed the saw cutting of the existing tennis court (to provide a clean edge to pave to); removed the east side fencing material, including the fence posts, and began to excavate to remove the organics and other undesirable soil from the court expansion area. During the course of their work, two additional trees on the east side of the expansion area were removed. As the crews were excavating, the roots of the two trees were within the excavation area and if the trees remained, over time the tree roots would heave the court surface. Additionally, when you project the court surface out 35 feet from the existing court area, we would have been placing 3 feet of fill material on top of the roots and base of the tree. Over time the trees would not be able to survive with the additional soil. Due to these factors, we removed the trees and will plant replacement trees in the future.

With the organic and other undesirable soils removed, the contractor has brought in clean fill material and compacted it in place. They will be bringing in crushed gravel and completing their grading activities in order to pave the court expansion area September 30th.

With City Council approval Monday evening for the purchase of the CXT DK-4 precast concrete restroom facility, the order was placed on Tuesday, September 17th. The new turnkey facility will arrive in approximately 180 days.

September 13th

We received our cultural resources permit from SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) September 3rd and have been coordinating with our archaeologist from Geosciences Management International, Inc. to complete the onsite survey (the survey could only be completed after the permit was issued by SHPO). The archaeologist completed the initial survey on Sunday, September 8th, and reported back that there were no cultural resources located on the property, which we had thought would be the case since the site was previously disturbed. With the initial onsite survey completed we have been coordinating schedules between the archaeologist and our contractor, Ray Wells, Inc. As a stipulation of the permit, we are required to have an archaeologist onsite at all times during ground disturbance work.

With Ray Wells, Inc scheduled to begin excavation next Tuesday, September 17th, Parks division crews have cut down the trees within the contraction area as well as other small shrubs. Parks staff proceeded to chip the materials on site. By cutting down the trees and chipping the material onsite, we are saving ourselves disposal fees from the contractor. In addition, Parks crews removed limbs from several trees that encroached into the work area.

July 26th

City Council and staff conducted a ground breaking ceremony at Rolling Dunes Park on Thursday, July 25th, for the long-awaited court expansion project. It was a perfect Florence summer day, with blue skies and light breezes. Later in the afternoon, Public Works Director Mike Miller, Assistant Public Works Director August Murphy and Facilities Lead Worker Tracy David meet with Steve Huber of Tennis Surfacing and Maintenance to discuss surfacing options for both the expansion area and the existing court area. We also met with Norm Wells of Ray Wells, Inc to discuss access and timelines for paving the new court area.

June 28th

With the Rolling Dunes Park Pickleball Court expansion project Conditional Use permit approval in place, Park staff removed the existing panels with native American cravings/illustrations and placed them in storage this week. These panels will be preserved and used in the final product. Having the panels removed has greatly changed the appearance of the existing shelter, making it more open and inviting to users of the park. We anticipate using the panels in a similar fashion, as wind breaks, however away from the new shelter which will make the shelter open and more visible.

June 11th

The Rolling Dunes Improvements Project went before the Planning Commission and was passed. See files for full Land Uses Agreement. 

Files:
PDF icon Rolling Dunes Land Use Approval (8 MB)
PDF icon Project Timeline (56 KB)
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