Sunken pavers on the terrace at the Community Center at Mercer View (CCMV), located at 8236 S.E. 24th Street, will be replaced this week with a solid cement slap reinforced with rebar.
On Wednesday, Sept. 8, and Friday, Sept. 10, from 6:30 a.m. to noon, the Luther Burbank north parking lot and access road leading into Luther Burbank Park at the intersection of S.E. 24th Street and 84th Avenue S.E. will be closed.
Scheduling the repairs was tricky, said Deputy City Manager James Mason.
“The construction date was based on activity and bookings,” he said of the CCMV terrace, which is mostly “booked back-to-back” during the summer.
Luther Burbank Park will remain open and may be accessed via the south entrance at S.E. 26th Street and 84th Avenue S.E., or by foot from the stairway on the north side of the CCMV. Signs will be posted to direct pedestrians to the park, which will remain open.
The Luther Burbank Administration Building, which houses the Mercer Island Parks and Recreation and the Youth and Family Services offices, located at 2040 84th Ave. S.E., will also be open during construction.
The need for terrace repairs resulted from shoddy work by Swinerton, the original contractor. Although the CCMV was completed in late 2005, the subgrade below the fill began to settle and resulted in sunken pavers and crumbling stair steps.
The sunken pavers were becoming an “issue of appearance and safety,” Bruce Fletcher, director of Parks and Recreation, told the Council earlier this summer when he requested funds for the repair.
A geotechnical engineer from Hart Crowser, Inc., of Seattle, drilled several core samples from the patio and found “non-compacted and insufficient subgrade that will continue to settle.”
City staff and CCMV architect Margaret Sprung came to the same conclusion after viewing the samples, said Fletcher.
Due to a 2007 settlement against Swinerton for other issues at the community center, the city is unable to pursue another claim.
The estimated repairs are expected to run at $50,000.
GLY Construction Inc., of Bellevue, submitted a $47,000 proposal to repair the terrace by removing the pavers, excavation of the soil and installation of a six-inch cement slab reinforced with rebar.
The city will fund the repairs though the Capital Improvement Program Budget.
