By day, the children of Dallas will be able to enjoy an interactive play area with a 5,000 sq. ft. splash pad. By night, choreographed water and light will dance to music. The Nancy Best Fountain at Klyde Warren Park will be a unique water feature and highlight the park’s 5.2 acres in the heart of Dallas.
McCarthy Building Companies Inc. were responsible for the installation. Fluidity Design Consultants managed the design. McCarthy Building Companies Inc. is one of the oldest privately-held national construction companies in the U.S. with nearly 160 years spent collaborating with partners solving complex building challenges. They self-performed all the concrete and earthwork.
The Klyde Warren Park was built on a 5-acre deck spanning over an eight-lane freeway (The Woodall Rodgers Freeway) and acts as a land bridge between uptown and downtown Dallas. It officially opened in 2012 and reports to host more than one million visitors each year. According to the park’s history, the concept of a deck park originated in the 1960’s with then Dallas Mayor J. Erik Johnson’s decision to recess the freeway. The idea resurfaced in 2002 and gained funding over the years. Construction began in October 2009 and was designed by Jim Burnett, principal of The Office of James Burnett.
It features more than 300 concrete beams with slabs connecting the beams forming trenches. These trenches provide planter boxes for the park’s trees. A combination of Geofoam and specially designed soil was used.
Klyde Warren Park
- Design and construction management: Bjerke Management Solutions
- Design: The Office of James Burnett and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.
- Deck Plaza Construction Contractor: Archer Western
- Amenities Contractor: McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.
With tight space, and heavy car and pedestrian traffic, there were limitations on construction equipment and material weight. Despite these challenges, the team ended up closing only one lane of traffic along the eastern side and used one lane of the highway’s frontage road for access. On-time deliveries were pivotal to the project’s success.
The Nancy Best Fountain features three stainless-steel trees, 14 rosebud bubblers, and 106 small nozzles which should create a giant leaf shape of water when on. All fountains in the park are powered by recirculated water through a four-step filtration and sanitizing process via UV light and CO2 systems. Approximately 500 nozzles with their respective pipes and conduits were used to create the underground system that connects the Fountain to two in-ground vaults. The stainless-steel trees were prefabricated offsite and were installed as single pieces in the Fountain.
McCarthy received a notice to proceed in January 2022 and achieved substantial completion in September 2022. "The project was originally scheduled to be finished in 6 months, but the owner wanted the project to be just right, so we incorporated some design changes and were able to still complete on time," says Paden Busboom, superintendent for McCarthy,
Challenges: Space, Weight, & Time
Mario Torres, McCarthy’s project manager points out that one of the biggest challenges of the project was the setting of the 15-ft. tall, 2,600-lb. fountain trees as well as the 80-ft. long in-ground water vaults. But the challenges didn't end there. Making sure the equipment could accommodate the space allotted and the park's 200-lb./sq.ft. weight limit (the size of an H15 truck) didn't allow the company to stockpile materials onsite - let alone use large boom pumps for convenient placement. 
McCarthy Building Companies Inc.
Located downtown, the construction site was surrounded by constant traffic and pedestrians. In an effort to control the situation, they made construction delivery entrance gates with assigned manpower to control these gates. This forced the trades and vendors to schedule deliveries well in advance to ensure they had access to the gates when needed.
In creating the Park and Fountain area, the team had to ensure that construction materials would not impact the weight load on the bridge beams. For material fill, they opted to use a lightweight but strong Geofoam filling, ranging from 6 in. to 2 ft. thick, with concrete on top, and lightweight dirt within the plantings.
They used a Liebherr 360-ton crane subcontracted from David Crane Service to install the underground water storage vaults and fountain equipment. “We had to select a crane that was small enough to fit in the access road lanes but with enough reach to place the decorative trees and vaults to ensure there was no weight of the crane on the bridge beams,” says Torres. McCarthy used rubber-tracked equipment due to potential point loading.
A 15-ft.-deep, 150-ft.-long, and 40-ft.-wide hole was dug to accommodate two concrete vaults cast office by Oldcastle. One vault for the water (two pieces), the second for equipment (10 pieces). The McCarthy team assembled these onsite.
With the exception of a couple of pours, the weight capacity of the bridge challenged them to not allow the use of a large boom pump to place all the concrete. Instead, they performed smaller pours, using trailer pumps and buggies to convey.
Of course, time ended up being a challenge. Aside from the limited space available to them and weight limit, due to being in a residential area, McCarthy's pours needed to be started after 7 am and end before 4 pm.
McCarthy Building Companies Inc.
Despite the challenges, McCarthy was able to avoid delays from supply shortages so many construction projects have experienced. Busboom explains that they were able to get most materials onsite and on time by being able to identify and order them as they were awarded the contract. They add, "We expedited the review processes from the design teams on long lead items by same day/shorter reviews. The items we could not control, due to coming from overseas, were the pumps and VFDs for the fountains and the play equipment in the children’s park. We were able to get temporary equipment as needed to test and keep moving forward."
Around 600 total yards of concrete was cast on the project. The foundation structure and site work was done with a 4,000 psi strength concrete and white concrete was used for architectural planter walls. High early-strength concrete was used for right-of-way city work and an Aggretex decorative concrete was used for an entrance-way to the new restroom building. Aggretex is a mixture of powered with custom decorative aggregates added with a comparable finish to stone or terrazzo.
CIM 1000 was used for the waterproofing under the stonework of the fountain, chosen specifically for the constant wet conditions.
McCarthy also constructed a Guest Services building and restroom facilities as part of the project. On the other end of the Park, McCarthy is completing a 6,000-sq. ft. addition to the Sheila and Jody Grant Children’s Park - adding a splash pad, new playground equipment, and a new canopy with a decorative screen wall. They also were able to resurface the whole of the children’s area with a rubberized material.
Klyde Warren Park
The installation of the Nancy Best Fountain within the unique environment that is the Klyde Warren park came with similar challenges that almost every concrete contractor handles each project. Challenges like the accessible area for work and time. Adding to this was the park's unique location on top of a bridge in the middle of downtown Dallas and a weight limitation. The three combined made for substantial management. With the completion on time, it seems like McCarthy overcame every obstacle.
Should a future project put you in a similar situation in the middle of a trifecta of challenges, Busboom's advice: plan. "Identifying when items are going to be delivered and carefully planning out those deliveries and install is key. Adequate manpower needs to be used and everyone needs to be on the same page for the goal."
"Also, for interactive water features, the finishes of the fountain need to be heavily coordinated with the fountain subcontractor. The fountain contractors have a difficult time keeping on schedule due to every water feature being custom, therefore it is difficult for them to fully coordinate. Making templates for finishes and using BIM coordination are two solutions that can be implemented."
The Klyde Warren Park is located between Uptown and Downtown Dallas over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway.
