BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. — The dog days of summer are here, leading many to flock to the closest swimming pool to cool down.
For Blue Springs residents, there currently is no city swimming pool, only a splash pad. That will change with the completion of Blue Surf Bay Waterpark.
It will feature traditional attractions like a lap pool, a lazy river and slides, along with a surf simulator and wave ball pool. The complex is intended for year-round use with indoor and outdoor aquatic features.
To people driving by on Interstate 70, they won’t see the carving of the pools and lazy river. Parks and Recreation director Dennis Dovel told KSHB the biggest feat so far was putting in the underground plumbing.
“Certainly a lot of the finishes inside you're not going to see, so there's a lot long way to go. As you can tell here in the indoor aquatics, we’ve got most of the underground plumbing in but certainly all the floors stepping forward, the walls, the decking, sewers, a lot of stuff like that has to go in.”
The city did a traffic study of the area and Dovel says they took into consideration traffic and flow. Not everything will be a complete resolution but they hope it helps at the start.
“One of the things that will occur on Mock Ave. is we will stripe a center turn lane so that we don't have the stacking, so traffic can still flow east and west. For those cars trying to turn into the facility, there’ll be a center stacking lane so they don't impede traffic,” said Dovel. “Then we built on site somewhere over 300 parking spots. Our parking studies said 265 is what was needed. So we're building in excess.”
McCown Gordon Construction is handling the project. The project's general superintendent Jeff Clemmons has close ties to the area.
“I’m proud to be a part of the project, was gonna get back to the community. I was actually born and raised in Blue Springs,” said Clemmons.
The project is paid for by a park sales tax that was approved by voters in April 2021.
