Abbey Park - Evesham Wychavon District Council

Main Features:

• Outdoor Splash Pad
• Wetpour Surface
• Over 17 individual water play features
• Local Park Theme
• Natural Colours
• Concrete Rill with printed cobble effect
• Interactive Weir Gates

Existing Site

The site prior to our works was an existing splash pad. This included colourful archways, spring rockers and other interactive elements. The Existing splash pad was deemed to be not in keeping with its surroundings and the customer was looking to create a whole new experience that fits the park.

Design

The Customer worked closely with a landscape designer which we then further developed the design by creating a safe exciting water experience that fits well within its setting. We also focused on maximising play value whilst maintaining a reasonable amount of water usage as the site will be a single use system working from the existing mains water feed.

We focused heavily on creating the perfect splash pad for the site and for it to sit seamlessly into the historic natural surroundings. The main focal piece is key to this, and we designed a concrete archway full of exciting play value to interact with. The archway includes a shower curtain to run through. This piece has an engraved design carved into the concrete to give the closest representation of the historic archway in the park. All of the water features had been located so once sprayed would flow down into the rill. This is utilising the water usage to maximise play value even further.

The Rill was designed out of concrete and stencilled to look like cobbles. This was designed with value engineering in mind so that we can best make use of the water with minimal wastage. Cobble rills tend to lose water through the joints and are difficult to waterproof to keep enough water in the rill to interact with. The stencils were agreed prior to the works through a large selection of designs. Included in the rill we installed 4 weir gates enabling users to dam up and release a flow of water at will.

We included not just any bridge but a wavey bridge across the rill to add further interaction to the area. This excellent feature adds a sensory element of play for all abilities including wheelchair users.

Similarly to the concrete arch, we included a series of sculpted boulders utilising our existing Eco Anchors and water features. This enables us to simply attach any of our Eco jet lids to the bolder and create fun interactive effects. We have also included a variety of these EcoSplash jets dotted around the site. EcoSplash is our very own interactive water play equipment. The tried and tested product is manufactured in the UK and is a cost-effective solution to water play. UK manufacture and in-house design gives us endless opportunities for high quality bespoke play equipment, tailored to our customer’s needs.

Alternatively, to the concrete arch, we wanted to showcase our ability to develop new features manufactured in the UK bespoke to our customer needs. We designed an alternative solution using our stainless-steel water features and panels to re-create the similar effect for a more cost-effective option. This also shows how we can work with the council to find the best solution to the project in hand.

Overall, we followed the design brief set whilst also applying our experience and ideas. Combining these two to create what the council were looking for. We then continued to work closely with the council, tweaking the design and features that best suited the scheme.

Construction Phase

As with most splash park installations, access is always a big consideration.  Abbey Park is no different, the entrance to the site is off a small winding road that leads into the town centre, all large vehicles need to be escorted into site to protect the general public. When the vehicles arrive at the compound area, they are off loaded on the entrance road straight into the compound with two banksmen either end of the vehicle to protect the public. This needs to be considered for each delivery and therefore all suppliers are provided with site manager contact details to call ahead and ensure a smooth and safe delivery of goods.

The site is very close the river Avon which means that consideration needed to be given in the event of any chemical spillages, with possible contamination to the waterways. We have purchased spill kits to keep on site and are readily available should they be needed. Plant on site also requires protection when not in use and overnight, this is done with the use of plant nappies.  Chemicals and fuel etc are all stored in their own bunds to mitigate the problem.

Challenges Overcome

Due to the location of the splash park being next to a river we have hired an extra steel container for the storage of different chemicals to ensure they are stored in a safe manner and mitigate any pollution to the surrounding area. This has highlighted that we should continue to ensure there is adequate storage for all chemicals on site even for sites that are not near a waterway.