The City of Martensville is quickly moving plans along for the new addition of a pump track, which will be located east of the Kyle Syrenne Skatepark, within the community this year.
For those that are not familiar with what a pump track is – you are not alone. As Martensville’s Director of Recreation & Community Services stated, “pump tracks are a relatively new phenomenon.”
The City of Martensville will be working with Progressive Bike Ramps, Canadian Ramp Company, and Velosolutions on this project. According to Velosolutions, who will be doing the conceptual design – a pumptrack is a course containing hills and berms that are ridden by “pumping” with your arms and legs to propel yourself forward rather than pedaling or pushing. They also note that a typical pumptrack is made of dirt which requires a lot of maintenance and grooming year-round, but the asphalt pumptrack allows for not only good riding conditions rain or shine, but good for all wheels as well.
Once completed the pumptrack will be open to those utilizing bikes, scooters, boards, blades and basically anything else along these lines that has wheels.
Initially, the plan was to construct the pumptrack south of the skatepark; however, after careful consideration, the City decided to move their plan to the east in order to create a larger scale pumptrack with more options. This location will allow for integrated connections between the skatepark and pumptrack as well.
On February 4th, the public will be invited to attend a virtual meeting where Velosolutions will present a potential pump track for the community. “Anyone interested will have access to the meeting where Velosolutions will explain what a pumptrack is, what it can be used for and get information out regarding the design process,” Schaeffer explained.
Following this meeting, a website will go live which will allow people to input their thoughts about what they would like to see included within the pumptrack, such as ramps, corners, etc. “By doing this, it provides users with an opportunity to basically design their own pumptrack. It is all submitted online and then based on that input, a design will be made based on what people want to see on it. It is being built for the community, so we want to know what they want,” Schaeffer said.
The website will be active from February 4-18, allowing a two-week period where people can give their input. After that, a design will be compiled and presented to the public for feedback. Once approved, the City will move forward tendering for construction.
“We are doing it now because we would like to have the final design in early March, so it can be tendered out and have construction begin in the spring. The hope is with spring construction, we will have it ready for community use for the summer.”
Watch for more information about this project and how to access the February meeting on the City of Martensville social media accounts.
ABOVE PICTURE: An example of a completed pumptrack from Velosolutions.
