After almost being swallowed by sinkhole, North Little Rock special-needs playground nears opening

Work continues Friday on the One Heart Playground at Burns Park in North Little Rock.
Work continues Friday on the One Heart Playground at Burns Park in North Little Rock.

Repairs of sinkholes that almost swallowed up a special-needs playground before it could open in North Little Rock's Burns Park are complete enough that a new grand opening has been set for this month.

The One Heart Playground was built specifically for special-needs children with varying degrees of physical and sensory impairments. It will also allow parents and grandparents with physical impairments to be able to interact with the children on the playground.

The play area -- the first public, special-needs playground in the North Little Rock parks system -- will now have its grand opening at 2 p.m. Sept. 14.

The playground was less than a week away from a June 13 grand opening when deep sinkholes were discovered beneath the rubberized surface and equipment already in place. Geo-technical engineers, under the management of North Little Rock Chief City Engineer Chris Wilbourn, assessed the cause and came up with a repair plan.

Almost $90,000 is estimated as the cost to fill the sinkhole, add a drainage system, replace the rubber surface and re-install the playground equipment, city Parks and Recreation Director Terry Hartwick said. All expenses haven't been tallied, he said, and are in addition to the original $250,000 cost.

"I'm looking forward to getting it open and going forward," Hartwick said last week after the new opening date was announced. "It's been a process.

"We dug everything out and corrected the mistake from last time," he said. "All the voids have been filled."

With repairs made, the playground remains on its original site, in a shaded area off the north side of Burns Park's Funland Drive, just east of the Funland amusement rides.

[EMAIL UPDATES: Get free breaking news alerts, daily newsletters with top headlines delivered to your inbox]

The area beneath the playground had to be stabilized and filled, Wilbourn said, with a means to also drain water from the site. The sinkholes happened after several rains during the spring caused a void to form between the fill materials and the covered surface, city officials said in June.

"There was a groundwater issue, and we had to handle it with better materials," Wilbourn said last week. "Because of the groundwater issue, we ended up putting in a drainage system to be able to drain some of the water out on the south side.

"We've had a couple of good rains lately and everything is stable now," he said. "The equipment is back in place."

The poured-in rubber surface will be put down Wednesday on top of slate that was used to top off the new fill materials. The surface will be completely installed by Monday, Wilbourn said.

Funding for the playground came from private contributions and a fundraising concert this summer. The North Little Rock City Council previously budgeted $50,000 to the Parks and Recreation Department for the playground, but Hartwick said that money hasn't yet been appropriated. The repair cost will come from public funds, he added.

"I did not want to use the donation money to fix the problem," Hartwick said. "It was our problem."

Hartwick began the playground project after meeting Emma Wasson, a child with a congenital heart defect and Turner's syndrome, which causes a variety of developmental problems, Hartwick has said. The girl's health condition didn't allow her to enjoy traditional playgrounds.

"I think everybody is going to be happy with it," Hartwick said. "Next year, if we have some money, we may look at trying to expand it."

The play area isn't the only North Little Rock location to need sinkhole repairs in recent years.

Dickey-Stephens Park, home of the minor league Arkansas Travelers baseball team, had sinkholes as large as 35 feet in diameter and 6 feet deep open in the outfield in late 2015 after numerous rains.

The baseball stadium's playing surface is below street level. Previous, smaller sinkholes had also developed in the playing surface at different times since the baseball park opened near the Arkansas River downtown in 2007.

A large sinkhole also has plagued the city-managed Downtown Riverside RV Park over the past year and remains a problem. In 2011, the construction of seven American Legion baseball fields in Burn Park were delayed because of sinkholes.

Metro on 09/05/2017

Upcoming Events