Point Defiance Park's Waterfront Phase 1 construction begun
City of Tacoma project will help protect Puget Sound; anticipate traffic and parking disruptions
Construction started the week of July 5 on Waterfront Phase 1, an array of projects at Point Defiance Park designed to create a more accessible, active and thriving waterfront. The work will lead to a larger vehicle/trailer parking area, a stormwater facility to protect Puget Sound, an elevated walkway linking Ruston Way to Point Defiance, a new 11-acre park on the peninsula, and more.
The work is part of Destination Point Defiance, an even broader long-term initiative that also will lead to a new aquarium, an environmental learning center at the zoo, viewpoint upgrades and more improvements for the park.
The 2014 capital bond measure is the catalyst for these improvements, which are also funded by Washington State taxpayers, the Asarco settlement, the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Fund.
Information about Waterfront Phase 1 and other projects in Point Defiance Park can be found at DestinationPointDefiance.org.
Stormwater facility
As part of Waterfront Phase 1, Metro Parks Tacoma has joined forces with the City of Tacoma to host an innovative water treatment system designed to improve Puget Sound water quality.
The 5,500-square-foot project features a series of six cascading pools that will channel runoff from streets and properties as far south as North 30th Street. Currently, polluted stormwater from the 754-acre watershed flows untreated before it spills into the Sound near Point Defiance Marina. That will change this winter, when the new facility is finished.
Construction of the Point Defiance Regional Treatment Facility is scheduled to begin the week of July 5 at the park entrance, on a sliver of land between state Route 163 and North 54th Street. The proposed system will use tested treatment technology.
“You should see water moving through the system every time it rains,” Jessica Knickerbocker, the City of Tacoma engineer in charge of the project, said last month.
About four years ago, in anticipation of changes along the waterfront, Metro Parks managers asked City officials whether they would be interested in building a treatment facility on park land. Knickerbocker researched several options, and the City received grant funding from the state Department of Ecology.
“As far as we know, it’s never been done at this scale,” said Roger Stanton, a Metro Parks capital projects manager who is overseeing Waterfront Phase 1.
Soil moving
Park visitors also may encounter occasional traffic disruptions caused by dirt-hauling trucks. The equivalent of about 150 dirt-hauling trucks per day will be working in the area this summer and fall. They’ll be moving 100,000 cubic yards of dirt. Visitors may see construction workers flagging traffic to help get trucks in and out of the site.
Science and Math Institute (SAMI) portable classrooms
Metro Parks Tacoma and Tacoma Public Schools agreed on a plan to temporarily relocate the SAMI portables from the Triangle to the former Camp 6 site. The move is temporary. Once a new environmental learning center at the zoo opens in the 2016-2017 school year, phase-out of the portables from Camp 6 can begin.
Metro Parks Tacoma is driving a process to determine the future of Camp 6 within the context of an updated master plan for Point Defiance Park. Metro Parks managers already have discussed ideas for the site through this year’s master plan update process. Camp 6 and several other areas were identified for further public input. Maps and other information about ideas for the site to date can be found at DestinationPointDefiance.org.
Parking, traffic will be affected
The project will reduce some of the parking area near the Pearl Street entrance, to the east of the ferry road. Most of the space is used for boat trailer parking in the summer. Directional signs will be used when possible to help people trying to use the lots. As the stormwater facility and several related projects advance, parking arrangements will be revised. Metro Parks has contacted boating and fishing groups, will provide fliers with parking suggestions and will reach out to park visitors in other ways.