SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A Mira Mesa neighborhood park that broke ground in 2022 and was originally scheduled to open in February 2024 is now less than a month away from completing construction, according to the builder.
Salk-Maddox Park has faced years of delays caused by lawsuits, a change in contractors, supply chain problems, and more. Construction superintendent Ron Evans said getting to this point required changes to nearly every aspect of the original plan.
"I've been in construction for 40+ years. This one is very unique," Evans said.
The park's design is complex. It includes a dog park, a playground, a community oval, a sports field for Salk Elementary and a sundial — which had to be rebuilt three times.
"One of the complications we had to have here was our positioning to true north," Evans said.
"You gotta calculate all those joints, and then the positions of all the time zones. So it is very complicated, and we took a lot of pride in building it," Evans said.
The park also features an exercise yard. Evans said that area alone accounted for an extra $500,000 in costs and a year of delays because of issues with copyright protections from the original designer and complications from working around underground utilities.
Even the light poles around the park required changes to their bases, and the addition of bird spikes on top to keep wildlife away.
"We had a 3 1/2 foot tall owl every morning sitting on these lights here," Evans said.
Now that the park is nearly finished, Evans calls it one of the best he has ever worked on.
"It's swimming upstream, and everything can be working against you. But you keep going. You eat an elephant one bite at a time and just one step at a time, don't let it overwhelm you," Evans said.
His hope echoes a quote from Jonas Salk that's etched into the concrete at the park. It reads, "Hope lies in dreams and imagination and the courage of those who dared to make dreams into reality." Evans says that it describes the journey it's taken to get the park built.
Evans said construction should wrap up within 30 days. After that, the city and the Parks and Recreation Department will decide when the park will open.
ABC 10News has covered the delays in construction and the community's frustration at how long it's been.
The city says the remaining work includes installing a dog bowl drinking fountain, fixing sod and turf installation issues, and finishing the driveway and parking lot. A spokesperson says the dog park should open this summer and the full Salk-Maddox Park by the end of the year.
San Diego Unified, which will share the park with the city, released a statement saying the district is excited, calling the park "a long-term investment for both the school and the surrounding neighborhood."
The district added, "We remain supportive of the project and look forward to it being completed so students and the community can fully benefit from the new facilities."
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