Officials say construction is on schedule at Edmonton’s Hawrelak Park
Posted August 21, 2024 6:51 pm.
Nearly halfway through a planned three-year facelift, City of Edmonton officials gave media their first look at some of the rehabilitation happening at Hawrelak Park.
“One of the things that will be of notice is a lot around the accessibility components as well as the connectivity on the shared pathways,” said Matthew Everett, the general supervisor of facility infrastructure delivery for the City of Edmonton.
Closing to the public in spring of 2023, Everett says much of last year was spent excavating and upgrading the infrastructure underground at the park near central Edmonton. And workers found more than just some old pipes.
“I think there were three different dinosaur bones. They weren’t big huge skeletons, just little pieces and fossils. Three dinosaur bones and some bison.”
Millions of years later, those dinosaurs evolved into the viscous geese that normally inhabit the park, that was until city crews had to drain the lake for grading work and improving water quality.
You won’t be allowed to swim in it, but Everett says they worked with experts to move birds — meaning the monsters will be back when the lake is refilled.
“We work with our conservation experts to do any bird sweeps, to make sure before we do any work in the areas, there are no nesting that’s occurring,” said Everett.
Now crews are making major upgrades at the surface level — that includes improvements to shared pathways, traffic control measures and parking expansion to curb heavy traffic on the ring road around the park, as well as expanding accessibility and full-time bathroom access at the park.
With Hawrelak Park home to many festivals and officials say they worked with festival organizers to help meet their needs.
CLIP (JUANITA SPENCE –SUPERVISOR, RIVER VALLEY PARKS AND FACILITIES)…
“New power access that can be available to them year-round, we’ve updated some of the water utilities to support things like heritage festival in their operations,” explained Juanita Spence, a supervisor with River Valley Parks and Facilities.
City officials say co-structuring is on schedule, and the park is rescheduled to open in early 2026.
