COEUR d'ALENE - Downtown Coeur d'Alene will be adorned with 25,890 new plants this summer as work on the new Centennial Trail corridor and McEuen Park wraps up.

"When you have 20 acres of park to work with, you have a lot of area to introduce new plants," said Landscape Architect Dell Hatch of Welch Comer Engineers. "There is more opportunity to accent and highlight the park's features."

Upon completion, the McEuen Park will be home to 202 trees, 2,350 shrubs, 1,922 ornamental grasses and 366 ground covers, Hatch said. Those will be in addition to the existing trees that were left in the park.

Hatch said he couldn't estimate the cost of the plants because it is incorporated in the overall landscaping budget.

John Barlow, who is managing the Centennial Trail improvements for the Hagadone Corporation, said The Resort will put in 50 new trees, 6,000 juniper plants and 15,000 flowering plants.

"We are putting in almost 3 acres of new sod," Barlow said. "They are seeding the park, but we wanted immediate lawn on our project."

The Hagadone Corporation is working closely with the city and the contractors on McEuen Park. Barlow said the projects are coming along nicely.

"They will be done when we planned for them to be done," he said. "The cooperation between all the contractors and the city has been wonderful. It's nice when a project comes together like this."

Hatch said landscape architects are working closely with the city parks department on the selection of vegetation to ensure optimum survivability and minimal maintenance.

Keith Erickson, spokesman for the city, said earthmovers are also busy on the west end of the park, grading trails that will soon be paved and altering topography as outlined in the landscape design.

He said by taking the parking lot out of the middle of the park and rebuilding half of it under Front Avenue, the park gained nearly 3 acres of green space.

With the exception of the east end, the park has been in a constant state of construction since ground was broken in September 2012, Erickson said.

"Once we seed the west side, the impact of green throughout the park is going to be incredible," Hatch said, adding landscapers are about 50 to 60 percent finished with the plantings.