When Bridgeport Parks and Recreation officials announced that they were basically going to do a complete overhaul of the existing tennis courts and Hinkle and Deegan Lakes, they also knew that the subsurface issues that led to the need for a replacement could be a problem as the project moved forward. And that’s what’s happened.

 

“We have found one major area that caused all of the issues as it related to the previous failure of the surface,” said P&R Deputy Director Joe Shuttleworth. “The contractor is working with the engineer for a plan that will remember the situation.”

 

The area in question was found as contractors with Landscapes Plus out of Morgantown removed all of the fencing, tore up the matting covering the court and the took off the asphalt from the old court. After that, the company completely excavated the site to the subgrade where the project was found.

 

“The area in question is an unstable subsurface that’s going to have to be removed and replaced,” said Shuttleworth. “Tentatively, the contractor and the engineer are looking at a specific fill and drainage in that area to remedy the situation, which may have led to the entire problem that we’ve had for years in that courts and led to the need for the matting.”

 

If drains are installed, it will take the water that is finding its way to the unstable subsurface area and take it directly into the lake. From there, the plan is to backfill the area with the proper type of stone to remedy the problem.

 

Remedying the problem, however, creates another problem. And it’s a bit of a financial one.

 

“This will put us over budget, even with the contingency,” said Shuttleworth.

 

The bid for the project was $259,000 and that does not include the standard 10 percent contingency that is included. However, P&R officials were aware that due to the nature of the problem that this issue was very much a probability. The good news, according to Parks and Recreation Director Don Burton, is that the estimated cost for the fix is right around $34,000 and that is not too far about the contingency dollars that are available.

 

“When we hired Thrasher, the did core drilling and found issues that led us to the budget that we ended up having, which makes this a substantial project,” said Shuttleworth. “Unless you core drill every single inch there’s no way of knowing what you’re going to find once you excavate, but we felt that based on the core drillings we could possibly find additional issues.”

 

The initial core drillings found several clay seams and some other areas that needed addressed that were part of the bidding process. The new area, which could move the timeline for having the courts completed back a bit, will add to the total cost and has yet to be finalized.

 

“The important thing for us and those who eventually utilize this is that we do it right. One thing we know for sure is that you never build back over a poor surface,” said Shuttleworth.