SLT crews set to build bike park for summer use
By Kathryn Reed
By August cyclists may be cruising around Bijou Bike Park.
Bids are out for a professional park designer to be hired. The South Lake Tahoe City Council will likely award the contract in May to the person who will essentially be the construction manager.
It will be city crews doing most of the heavy lifting, with assistance from Bijou Bike Park Association volunteers and local contractors chipping in. It will take the better part of July to complete the park.
This is a change for the city. For the last 10 years most projects have been contracted out. Assistant Public Works Director Jim Marino is helping implement a new philosophy.
“We are trying to phase the street crews into doing more projects,” Marino told Lake Tahoe News. “There are talented operators with unique skills.”
Doing projects in house also saves money. The park, with two pump tracks and a BMX track in the center, will cost a little more than a half million dollars. The money is a mix of funds collected from the nonprofit cycling group, the city and in-kind work.
It will be built near the play area, down from the skate park and bordering the meadow. The future Greenway Bike Path will provide easy access to the park.
It will not impact the disc golf course. However, the par course will be eliminated at least temporarily. In future years the city is looking at replacing it with better, newer equipment around the perimeter of the bike park.
Because the city has access to dirt this has helped keep costs down. Marino said if soil had to be purchased, it would have made the bike park cost prohibitive.
About 800-cubic-yards are sitting at the park ready to be used as the base layer. This came from the Harrison Avenue project. El Dorado County will be able to supply about another 800-cubic-yards from a project it is doing this season. And the city will have access to dirt from this summer’s Sierra Tract work.
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency requires a permit to move dirt, though there are fewer hurdles when it is moved within the basin.
Bike parks are a growing attraction throughout the United States.
“It’s the perfect avenue to teach kids how to mountain bike,” Marino said.
Youngsters – and others – usually don’t like pedaling uphill. That leaves driving or taking a lift as the other options to get to the top in order to ride down. Bike parks eliminate the need to pedal uphill, but still provide the mountain bike experience.
All that dirt is needed to create the paths that have features on which to learn so riders can take those skills onto trails.
It’s not just newbies who use these parks. Parks like this are a way to practice, unwind and for friends to gather. So many mountain biking destinations – which Lake Tahoe is trying to become – have these parks.
Cool. But $500,000.00 to push around some already piled up up dirt?? Someone is getting hosed. I will do it with my buddies farm tractor for 50,000. The world has gone bat scat crazy.
Wire. The article said “bids are out.”
Wire, where does it say 500k? it will cost no where near that amount in hard cash. Some is coverage that the city currently has. Some is volunteer hours. The city would only be paying less than 100k in cash.
I hate gubmint stealing money from me to build some stupid hippie bike park-this might harm Vail’s gawd given right to make a profit on these activities
Hi everyone,
For clarification; the estimated cost of the bike park would be around $500k if it were designed, planned and constructed through the typical processes of public works bidding and construction contracts and agreements via contracted workforce. The estimate also includes importing all the soil needed for build out of the courses at a cost per cubic yard.
The City’s partnership with the non-profit Bijou Bike Park Association and other locals/groups has given us the opportunity to lower the hard costs of the project dramatically. The City Council has allocated $100,000 and labor directly to the park construction, and the Non-profit group is putting in about $35,000 and labor.
A portion of funds will go towards hiring the consultant bike park professional who will oversee the construction of the courses and features, and the other portion of the funds will go towards the purchase of the materials for the park features, signage, hardscape elements, utility connections, etc.
The recent City Council meeting presentation by the Public Works Department on March 20, 2015 outlined the partnership concept, costs, and project data. For those interested, this presentation can be found on the City’s website under City Council Meetings – March 20, 2015, Unfinished Business B of the meeting agenda.
This project is a great example of Public/Private partnership to bring a recreational asset to fruition at a fraction of the cost than what would have been through normal processes.
We look forward to working with the Bike Park Association, The BMX Association, TAMBA and all the others that want to chip in and make this park a reality.
This is so impressive. Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make this a reality and for demonstrating how to get things done!
Check out the May edition of BIKE magazine about mtn biking in South Lake Tahoe, this park is just one part of what has been done and is going to be done
Does anyone know if TRPA is still getting a $60,000.00 mitigation fee out of this community recreation project? Thanks to the City for putting staff to work on this and getting it done ASAP.
“Youngsters – and others – usually don’t like pedaling uphill. That leaves driving or taking a lift as the other options to get to the top in order to ride down.”
This is typical of the lazy, out of shape people today. You want to go downhill, earn it, pedal up ! The forest service needs to eliminate all car shuttles, especially on the Corral, Oneidas Rd., where some days it’s like a freeway. How much pollution are those cars and trucks spitting out into the basin ?
Stop shuttles in the Tahoe Basin.