The Town Deserves

A Better Skate Park

To the Editor:

A skate park vendor having the worst reputation in the industry for failed skate parks, warranty issues and questionable marketing tactics — as documented by Skaters for Public Skateparks (www.skatepark.org) with scores of articles in their public forums along with countless blogs, Facebooks from across the country (or simply Google this company and add warranty issues) — has schmoozed the Parks and Recreation Department into believing that the precast concrete build method will be the best choice for the town and its skaters. Wrong! The department has been presented with a mountain of information about state-of-the-art construction of skate parks; however it has chosen to sole source this project to a build method with a history of structural failure and a unanimous dislike by skaters across the country.

The company’s reply to Newtown’s P&R about this park’s [Mount Rainier, Md.] failure this year is: “This project was built from the molds that we purchased from XXXX originally. These molds had steel edging between each precast module and were not made in a way that the transition came tangent to the ground which caused a couple work-arounds.

“a. The lower part of the transition had to be poured on site which adds an extra seam and causes a somewhat wavy connection.

‘b. Between precast pieces you have steel edging next to steel edging. This was not ideal because it is difficult to get elevations set perfect and appearance can be “choppy” but still skates okay, ramps are connected, the channels are filled with a non-shrinking grout. This provides a smooth connection and appearance. And I’m not sure what to say about the rust spots on connections. So if this is the look you would rather have we can give you a discount.”

Is this what the skaters and the town deserve?

These 10,000 pound modules manufactured more than 1,000 miles away with six-month-old untested engineering is a sure failure and an ecological disaster. Local mature skaters, skate park advocates, and some of the best concrete skate park builders in the world have been ignored and dismissed by the Recreation Department despite their overwhelming evidence that precast concrete modular skate parks simply don’t work and have will be destined for failure.

Shame on the town and the Recreation Department for ignoring the best interests of the town and most of all the skaters.

The simple remedy is to advertise for a design/ build request for proposal (RFP) and allow the most qualified skate park builders in the world to participate rather than pigeonhole one company through a narrow request for bid (RFB).

Rich Peterson

2670 Reservoir Avenue, Trumbull                                 March 8, 2010

(Mr Peterson is co-owner, with his son, of Rampage LLC, a Bridgeport-based firm that designs, constructs, and installs skate park equipment. Its clients include municipalities, the military, private organizations, and the general public. Mr Peterson said this week, “At this point or in the future we are not a bidder for the skate park project.”)