Bidding opens today for Atlas Waterfront Park
Coeur d'Alene Press | UPDATED 6 years, 11 months AGO
LOREN BENOIT/Press file Scott Dickinson of Coeur d’Alene views park plan designs for the 47-acre former Atlas Mill and waterfront site during a open house in February 2019 at the Coeur d’Alene Public Library.
By CRAIG NORTHRUP
Staff Writer
The newest addition to Coeur d’Alene’s park system opens for business today, long before it’s even built.
At 2 p.m., the city officially opens the bidding process for the Atlas Waterfront Park project, marking the next step in the future of the Atlas Mill site. The $6 million, 12-acre park will include a public beach access area, four acres of green space, a playground, a non-motorized launch kayak and paddleboard launch, and a restroom, among other amenities. Construction is set to begin next summer.
The Atlas Park project, dubbed the “Greenbelt” by some city officials due to its narrow width along the Spokane River, is financed by ignite cda, Coeur d’Alene’s urban renewal agency. As part of the pre-bidding process, only companies that sent representatives to a Sept. 13 pre-bid walk-through are able to bid.
“We had a good turnout of prospective bidders that day,” City Administrator Troy Tymesen said. “We had about 10 representatives there on the 13th. So after bidding opens, we’ll bring their bids to the ignite [cda] meeting and then to City Council.”
The scope of the project bidders will compete over includes clearing and grubbing, mass excavation and embankment, extending Suzanne Road, building a parking lot, building a concrete plaza, building a shared-use path and sidewalks, constructing a masonry restroom and a pole building, installing an irrigation pump system, establishing rock landscape walls, installing water, storm and sewer lines, stabilizing the shoreline with rockery walls, restoring a beach, reinforcing water access, installing a wood log boom and pilings, and landscaping, among other needs.
“We’re planning on an accessible swim area,” said Phil Boyd with Welch-Comer Engineers during a project open house. “This is a project that [Parks director] Bill Greenwood … has worked hard to try to find a place where we can make it accessible for all parts of our community. There are really neat opportunities here.”
Bid recommendations are expected to reach the City Council for approval in October.
“Public waterfront access is important to our citizens,” Mayor Steve Widmyer said. “We are happy that this project is moving forward to provide that.”
The park is expected to boast approximately 120 parking spaces and reserve slots for food trucks to round out its presence among the 47-acre Atlas Mill site.