Cartwright Park in November 2023, before the current renovation. Photo: Nick Number, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Renovation work at Cartwright Park in the 6th Ward is underway, but the project has already missed the city’s original plan to finish this fall, Ald. Tom Suffredin told residents Friday.
In a newsletter quoted by Evanston Now, Suffredin said a delayed permit from the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District “pushed the start back nearly a month,” and that a “wetter-than-normal summer” left the ground too wet for crews to stay on schedule. Work has begun on demolition, a construction fence and the base for a new playground, he said.
“City staff are working closely with the contractor to keep the project moving, but weather has already caused some delays, and more are possible,” Suffredin wrote. “We’ll share an updated completion timeline once the schedule firms up.”
The park, at 3324 Grant Street, is slated for a new children’s playground, gazebo, pavement, drainage, security lighting, landscaping and improvements to the basketball and tennis courts. The city has put the Cartwright work at about $1.6 million. A July 6 project notice from Public Works said construction would start in mid-July and wrap up in October, with the park closed while crews are on site.
In the spring, the City Council awarded a combined Cartwright and Fitzsimons parks contract to Chicago firm Beritus Inc. for $2,385,000, according to a March staff memo. That memo described Cartwright as a 2.25-acre park south of Grant Street and east of Prospect Avenue that had not had major improvements in about 30 years, and it also anticipated an end-of-October finish.
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Margaret Whitfield is the editor of The Evanston Edge and covers local government, development and neighborhoods.
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