Over the next few months, both the zoo and Roosevelt Park are anticipating the start of projects that will transform both for years to come. There have been years of planning, hours of meetings, drawings and revisions, and a lot of sleepless nights that has gotten us to this point. While it will be a relief once work begins, you can be certain that won’t end the meetings or the sleepless nights.

There’s a taste of things to come this week as Roosevelt Park is closed while a pre-consolidation pile is installed. This and others to come are critical pieces that must set for 6-9 months to allow for soil compaction. After this week’s work, the park should reopen until the larger pieces of the work are contracted out and begins. Expected next steps will be the removal of trees in the park that are directly impacted by the flood mitigation project. This work must be completed by the end of March due to regulations around the endangered long-eared bats.

One thing everyone must understand is that this project is going to be very fluid and everyone involved is committed to minimizing impact on the community that uses the park, but also ensure a safe environment for the same. As winter transitions to spring and then summer, access to park facilities like the pickleball courts or pool will be maintained. However, there will be times when access may change depending on work that is going on. In these cases, information will be provided as much ahead of time as possible. As mentioned before, it will be a fluid process and we will all have to be patient throughout the process, trusting that the completed product will help us forget any imposition we experience today.

While work on the flood mitigation project does not move into the zoo this year there will be some impacts. Once contractors move into the park, a construction entrance will be created from Burdick Expressway to the park entrance by the zoo cutting off the west end of the parking lot. Inside the zoo, we have already emptied the zebra and bongo exhibits as we prepare for the construction of the African Plains Building (APB). Completing the APB is critical as we prepare for the flood project to ensure we have a space for the giraffes once work begins on the floodwall. This summer during the APB construction, we plan to run fences to separate them from the construction area and expand their yard space into area previously inhabited by the zebras. As work starts in the zoo next year, the giraffes will be on exhibit in the APB while the northside of their exhibit is dismantled.

The word of the day is fluid, and the next few years will be transitional, for both the park and zoo. The key on our end is to keep you informed as each step moves forward and need for the community to understand that while most of the impacts will be known ahead of time, some may arise unexpectedly so we will all have to remain fluid and patient moving forward.