Arapahoe Park Playground

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Richardson, Texas Arapahoe Park Spray Playground

This project, built initially in the mid-1980's had some serious flaws . . . chief among them, the thing didn’t work! The thing just dribbled! Over the years with successive efforts of various repair contractors the play features were just about ready to be taken out for lack of play value. Richardson officials contacted Terry Brannon, Pool Consultant, to first evaluate why the SCS play features didn’t work in the first place and then to suggest some remedies that could be enacted that didn’t cost more than the original playground did!

Brannon found that the pumps weren’t pumping to capacity, the filters and pumps were not matched for flows, flows were unbalanced and a lot of energy was wasted. The 30-hp submersible pump was barely making enough water to power the playground. At the same time, the wet well was leaking more water than the spray features themselves. In addition, the rubber surfacing under the structure had warped and peeled to the extent it was unsightly and ineffective. The paint had ‘died’ on the play structures making them faded and unattractive.

Brannon suggested replacing the pumping station with a wet well/dry well set up and reducing the quantity of water that was pumped seventy feet away to a small filter to an amount that matched the filter’s capacity. The end result was a 10 hp pump was all that was needed for flow and a 1 hp pump was all that was needed for filtration. Indeed, when the features were turned on the first time following pump installation, water was blown completely out of the play area and the adjusting valves had to be correctly set to harness the abundant flow! The play features themselves were modified by drilling some holes and plugging others to create new adventures. A new granular rubber surface was installed for aesthetics, safety and traction. The contractor started the project in March, 2004 and successfully had the park open by mid-May . . . a tremendous accomplishment. Most of the work was performed by Sunbelt Pools, Dallas. (www.sunbeltpools.com) Total cost of the work was $140,000 including repainting and refurbishing the play equipment, replumbing the entire site, installing new pumps in a dry pit, replacing the rubber surfacing and renovating the wet well.

Contact Ron Underwood at City of Richardson for more information. (Ron.underwood@cor.gov).