The Elmhurst Park District is home to 18 playgrounds located throughout the various parks in the city. In order to keep them up-to-date with the latest safety standards and to address residents’ needs, the Park District replaces one playground per year. Currently the Washington Park playground is under construction with a new playground being built in its place.
The playground will receive all new equipment, site amenities, landscapes, poured-in-place rubberized safety surfacing and safety tiles will replace wood carpet surfacing. A play structure for children ages 6-12 will provide a variety of slides, spinners, climbers, panels and a shade sail. The tot area will include a structure that consists of slides, a boulder climber, bridges, roofs and panels for shade, plus three swings, one ADA accessible swing and two tot swings.
Benches and new trees will be added to enhance the playground area and to replace a number of trees affected by the Emerald Ash Borer.
Thanks to ample adjacent street parking, the existing parking lot will be reduced in size to accommodate ADA accessible parking, an ADA accessible path leading to the baseball fields, and a Porta Potty shelter. The existing drinking fountain will be replaced with a unit that is ADA accessible and has a ground level doggie bowl.
The former playground was removed by Kids Around the World, a non-profit agency that repurposes playgrounds and rebuilds them in developing countries that do not have the resources to provide playgrounds on their own. The Elmhurst Park District has worked with Kids Around the World previously to rebuild the Wilder Park playground at an orphanage in Thailand.
Completion for the Washington Park Playground project is scheduled for early September, 2013.
