Sep 27, 2021 2 min read

The municipality of Bethel Park broke ground Sept. 24 on its Birch Tree Park playground installation.

“Neighborhood parks are a very important part of our community,” Tim Moury, Bethel Park Council president, said. “The new playground equipment at Birch Tree Park will provide a place for the neighborhood children to play within walking distance of a number of their homes.”

The equipment was selected by area residents and will be in compliance with current playground safety standards.

Another major component of the project was extensive storm sewer work that already has been completed.

“Local flooding is a major issue facing many municipalities in the Pittsburgh area,” Stacey Graf, Bethel Park director of engineering, said. “After the flood of (June 20) 2018, council made a commitment to complete flood control mitigation projects throughout the municipality on public property.

“In this neighborhood, Glenrock and Ashland received major road damage in 2018 due to the large volume of water coming through the valley, as well as many residents with reported flooding,” she added.

To alleviate downstream flooding conditions, the municipality employed measures including:

• Diversion structure to intercept stormwater flows and divert them into a new underground detention tank field;
• Detention tank designed to hold 7,500 cubic feet of rainwater, approximately 55,000 gallons;
• Rain Garden to intercept surface runoff, detain it and release it back into the storm sewer system.

“The facility collects runoff from 3.75 acres of upstream watershed area and provides approximately 7,500 cubic feet of storage volume,” Graf said. “It also reduces sediment transport to the receiving stream and improves its water quality.”

The storm sewer project cost $265,000 and was completed by Morgan Excavating in 2020.