ASHLAND — After flooding prevented park visitors from entering the Audubon Wetlands Preserve for days or weeks at a time last spring, the Ashland County Park District took steps to ensure that wouldn’t happen again next year.
The ACPD hired Simonson Construction Services to build a new boardwalk entrance into the park at 379 Township Rd 743 in early September and gathered to celebrate its completion last week with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
“Over the years, it became deteriorated, and so since this is the only entrance to the park, we said, if we don’t have this boardwalk, guests can’t enjoy it anymore,” ACPD director Stephanie Featheringill said. “So we really made it a project goal.”
The original boardwalk was built about ten years ago by park volunteers and was in need of frequent repairs.
Simonson Construction Services designed and built the bridge.
“It’s not a typical job. It’s kind of a unique project in that, it’s over a swamp. That’s a little out of the ordinary,” said Dan Moore of Simonson Construction Services. “I wouldn’t say the work was challenging, but the work environment, the conditions were challenging.”
His crews started by demolishing the former structure and inserting pilings an average of 30 feet into the ground to support the new one.
“We started on one side and worked to the other side,” Moore said.
Featheringill explained that the bridge was built three-foot higher to purposefully prevent future flooding.
“It can be accessed all the time by guests,” she said.
