Coralville will move ahead with updated Youth Sports Park improvements

CORALVILLE — Coralville Parks and Recreation is moving forward with plans to improve the Coralville Youth Sports Park after delays related to construction costs put a pause on the project.

The plans include adding more fields to open up more playing space across the city, which had 83 teams request field space last year.

Background

In January, the Coralville City Council approved spending up to $1.8 million on upgrades to the park.

The project at the park, located at 2480 Dempster Dr., would add a 375-foot-long diamond, with the option for 70-, 80- and 90-foot basepaths, and a smaller 250-foot diamond with basepath options of 50, 60 and 70 feet. Both fully fenced-in diamonds would include a dugout, a batting cage/pitching warmup area and bleachers. Grass parking areas and a player drop-off area would be added.

The two new diamonds at the Youth Sports Park would serve as a replacement, as the city plans to close the field at S.T. Morrison Park to make room for future construction of a new recreation center.

The city had hoped to award a contract for the work by late April and finish construction by the end of the fall. The grass would then require three seasons before it would have been ready for limited use in fall 2026.

However, when the city put out a request for bids the results came in higher than expected. The city said the engineer’s estimate for the project was around $1.58 million. The three bids the city received ranged in price from $1.88 million to $2 million.

As a result, the city decided to pause the project in late May.

What’s Happened Since

The city is planning to accept new bids for the project, but it is breaking the work up into two separate bids after feedback from area contractors. In addition, the 250-foot baseball diamond is no longer guaranteed. The city still is asking for construction estimates for the smaller diamond and will add it if it’s within price range.

The first bid is solely civil improvements which includes things like grading and other utility. The city engineer estimates the project could cost around $788,000.

The second bid is the construction of the baseball field, which is expected to cost around $825,000.

“We heard from the contractors on several things, one, that the civil is very different from the ball diamond build. And so there was a lot of markup on that second contract coming in to do the ball diamond build. And then the people who want to do the ball diamond build needed more time,” Coralville Parks Director Sherri Proud said at a city council meeting.

The project could be completed as soon as fall 2026, pending the awarding of a contract from bids received by the city.

Comments: megan.woolard@thegazette.com

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