Skip to main content

Page last updated on December 7, 2024 at 8:53 pm

This page provides an overview of current projects happening at parks, trails, and facilities. Projects will be organized by location with current details below.

 

Building Trades Park Master Plan

A new master plan created for Building Trades Park addresses aging park infrastructure, as well as future anticipated needs and community wants for the park. Mader Design, a Beech Grove, Ind. based landscape architect firm, presented the final Building Trades Park Master Plan to the Board of Park Commissioners at their May 2024 regular meeting. A first round of park improvements, focusing on accessibility, are planned to be contracted before the end of 2024 using a portion of the city's available American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.

The Board of Park Commissioners approved a contract with Mader Designto design the first phase of accessibilitiy improvements to Building Trades Park. These improvements will include north-south accessibility across the park (removal of the existing wooden ramp to the picnic shelter, and a new north-south connection); and, as funding permits, the construction of a new picnic shelter. The goal is to, by the end of 2024, contract these improvements for construction in 2025. 

 

Bicentennial Gateway

The Bicentennial Gateway was completed in November 2024.

 

Clear Creek Trail

A detour on the Clear Creek Trail, about a half mile south of Rockport Road and a half mile north of West That Road, will be in place at least until July 2025. The detour is paved and accessible, and routes trail traffic around the construction site of a new vehicle bridge that will connect Gordon and Fullerton Pikes.

Detour around the Clear Creek Trail closure necessitated by the Fullerton Pike bridge project.
Clear Creek Trail detour, shown in blue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hopewell Commons

A new, one-acre urban park dubbed "Hopewell Commons" is scheduled to be complete in 2024. Part of the Phase I East Hopewell Neighborhood Development, Hopewell Commons is west of the Seminary Square Kroger. The park includes trees, greenspace, a covered pavilion, and a play structure. It is being built with sustainable features including permeable pavers, a stormwater swale with native plants, soil cells for street trees, and a stormwater cistern to capture rainwater for irrigation.

 

Miller-Showers Hydraulic Dredging

Project completed in September 2024.

The City of Bloomington Utilities (CBU) has the responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the detention pools at Miller-Showers Park for the purpose of stormwater management. A dredging project to remove an estimated 2,900 cubic yards of sediment from 5.56 acres of open water in two ponds at Miller-Showers Park is scheduled to begin June 27, 2024.  The dredging project will ensure the ponds maintain their capacity to capture stormwater, slow its flow to allow litter, sediment, and other solids to settle out of the water before the water continues downstream to Griffy Creek.

 

RCA Community Park

A new 37' x 42' rentable shelter was constructed in 2024 north of the parking lot and west of the playground and restroom building.

 

Urban Forestry & Tree Planting

During 2024, Parks and Recreation will replant approximately 150 trees along the Duke Energy's Bloomington Reliability Project corridors (mostly on Rogers Street and 17th Street). A contract with Morin's Landscaping to plant these trees was approved at the March Board of Park Commissioners meeting. Additionally, a third phase of the Bicentennial Tree planting throughout the city is planned to be contracted for planting in 2025 by the end of this year.

 

Winslow Sports Complex

The tennis courts at Winslow Sports Complex are scheduled for an upgrade in 2024. Cassady Electric will remove the existing tennis court lights and install 24 new 34,500 lumen LED bulbs along with a digital time clock to allow lights to come on only during specific times, and a digital timer that will allow each tennis court to work independently and for a timed duration. Work is scheduled to be complete by October 1, 2024.