Millennium Park’s Splash Pad, a bubbling water fountain designed for young children, will be replaced by spring 2018. The Splash Pad was installed in 2000 when the park opened and it has delighted children throughout the summer months. But age and harsh winter weather haven’t been kind to the water feature.
warm day in 2015. (Chronicle file photo)
Millennium Park’s Splash Pad, a bubbling water fountain designed for young children, will be replaced by spring 2018.
The Splash Pad was installed in 2000 when the park opened and it has delighted children throughout the summer months. But age and harsh winter weather haven’t been kind to the Splash Pad’s underground pipes, and numerous advances in technology have made it obsolete in some ways. The upcoming summer session will be the last for the current Splash Pad.
Doug Boehm, superintendent of parks and planning, told park commissioners a new Splash Pad is estimated to cost the park district between $150,000 and $200,000.
The park board on Tuesday, Jan. 3, reviewed three options for replacing the Splash Pad and accepted a recommendation to hire Innovative Aquatic Design Inc. to take on responsibility for design preparation, site construction and installation. Commissioners will take final action on hiring the business at the Jan. 17 board meeting.
Boehm and his crew have worked with Innovative Aquatic Design in the past. The firm was responsible for the replacement of the slide at Lions Pool three summers ago and has done repair work on the pool’s water filter system, Boehm said.
A proposed timeline will have the replacement project ready for bids by spring. The crew will select the mechanicals and equipment in summer. The Splash Pad will be removed around Sept. 1 and work completed in fall.
The Splash Pad plans will be submitted for approval to the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“That’s necessary because the Splash Pad is an existing aquatic structure,” Boehm explained.