Troy’s council approves funds to re-surfacing the tennis courts at Parc Boulan

TROY – Boulan Park tennis courts are getting a makeover.

As part of its March 22 consent agenda, city council members unanimously approved a funding motion for the resurfacing of the eight tennis courts currently in Boulan Park. The courts were last remade in 2006 and have started to crack, Troy Facilities and Grounds operations manager Dennis Trantham said.

“We’re kind of trying to anticipate potential damage in the future,” Trantham said, adding that the work is needed now, but it’s also preventative. “Once the tennis courts start to crack, they don’t stop. Once the asphalt starts to crack, it doesn’t stop. He continues to crack.

The city sent notices to 384 companies to bid on the project as of March 4. They received four bids in return and chose the lowest bidder, S&J Asphalt Paving Co. of Canton. The project is estimated at $ 224,850 and will not exceed $ 275,000. Funds for the project will come from the park development capital fund.

A two-year contract is included in the project offer as a way to hold the contractor accountable for a few years after completion, explained Trantham.

Residents may not be surprised to hear about the resurfacing project. Trantham said maintaining the city’s existing parks and recreation facilities was a high priority both in the city’s parks and recreation master plan and in feedback received from residents in a recent survey.

“We’re really trying to maintain what we have before we go and try to build more,” Trantham said.

He said tennis court use and park attendance at Boulan Park have always been in high demand in general, but have increased due to the pandemic. “They are quite widely used. Especially with COVID this past year, it looks like they’ve been used even more. People were looking for an opportunity to get out, ”Trantham said, adding that the Troy School District and Troy Community Center also sometimes used the courts for programming.

“The courts are used almost all the time when the weather is reasonable,” Troy’s acting recreation director Brian Goul wrote in an email. ” Especially at night. “

Goul believes the community center will take advantage of the new courts when they are used for tennis camps during spring break, just as individual players will see improvements when they use them.

The tennis courts will be ripped from the foundation, ripping up all the asphalt. The base will be checked to see if it needs maintenance and then all other components will be rebuilt from there.

“You have two different types of asphalt. You have a leveling class, then a tennis court shoeing class. Then your color coating materials, which are basically your acrylic paint, then your netting posts and center ties, ”said Marc Olds, S&J Asphalt project manager and estimator, adding that S&J Asphalt will complete all the work, asphalt with new nets.

In good winter weather conditions, Olds said, the new asphalt could last 10 to 15 years, but if courts experience severe winters, it can accelerate further damage in the future. Overall, Olds is happy to be working on the project.

“This is good. These auctions are like a one-hand poker deal. It takes a long time to prepare them, so when you don’t have enough and are confident in the way you are bidding the job and how you put together the offer, that’s a good feeling, “he said.” Then you can build it and watch it all unfold. Get assigned a project and then get it through from start to finish. end and handing someone a finished product that everyone will like is the reward for hard work.

Tennis court construction times will be tentative and dependent on weather conditions, Trantham said, but crews are expected to start work the week of April 19. The courts are expected to be restored and reopened between June 10 and 15.

For more information, visit troymi.gov.