Bolton Memorial Park Playing Fields: Civil Engineering

Bolton Memorial Park located in Weare, New Hampshire is an 18-acre municipal athletic facility initially developed in the late 1990’s by volunteers. The park is divided into designated spaces for a playground, and soccer, baseball, and football fields. The Town of Weare commissioned GeoInsight to evaluate the existing conditions, solicit public and municipal input regarding park use, perform three charrette sessions to invoke design ideas, and prepare a final Master Plan Narrative and Implementation plan along with an artistic rendering.

The Town’s vision included enhancing the current facilities to create a showcase facility that would bring the community together, demonstrating a firm commitment to youth athletics. One major challenge was to connect the designated spaces with walking paths and vehicles roads. Stories of frustration filled the charrette sessions as parents and coaches relayed their parking and child drop-off nightmares, often leading to game delays.

In the end, GeoInsight developed a design to accommodate everyone’s needs. The design:

• Increased the parking capacity to 150 total spaces with convenient access to fields and playground
• Included a pedestrian and vehicle management plan incorporating signs, routing of vehicles, and walkways to encourage efficient access to parking areas and fields
• Contained both passive and active security systems to deter vehicles from entering fields, vandalism, and graffiti, and
• Provided a formal landscape architecture for the park that incorporated plantings, trees, ground cover, flags, and sculptures.