Roosevelt Island Blackwell Park And Al Lewis Park Playgrounds Closing For Renovation August 13 - October 15, New Surface, Fencing & Picnic Tables To Be Installed - New Equipment Planned For Spring 2019

During the July 23 Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Board of Directors Meeting (video of full meeting here), RIOC President Susan Rosenthal reported that both Al Lewis playground at Capobianco Field

and Blackwell Park Playground

will close for renovations in August.



RIOC Public Information Officer Alonza Robertson adds:

Community Update

The Grandpa Al Lewis Playground, at Capobianco Field, and the Blackwell Park Playground will be closed Aug. 13 - Oct. 15 due to ground surface renovations.

New padded-rubber flooring will replace the existing broken concrete, cracked asphalt and wood-chip ground surfaces. New fencing and picnic tables will also be installed.

The replacement and installation of some new playground equipment for those playgounds is planned for Phase 2 of the project to start in the spring of 2019.

While the Roosevelt Island Operating Corporation understands the time concern of the closure, the playgrounds are in desperate need of attention from both equipment and flooring-safety standpoints.

The schedule has been reviewed and this approach timewise was found to be the least impactful due to the ability to complete the total amount of work with one closure, as opposed to staggering.

The time of year for the rubber flooring is also critical, as contractors are not able to pour the rubber material once it reaches a certain temperature in the fall.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

(FYI: The Grandpa Al Lewis Playground is named after an American character actor best known for his role as Count Dracula look-alike "Grandpa", opposite Fred Gwynne's and Yvonne De Carlo's characters, on the CBS television series "The Munsters" from 1964 to 1966 and its subsequent film versions. Mr. Lewis was a Roosevelt Island resident who later in life was also a restaurant owner, political candidate, and radio broadcaster).

UPDATE 8/14 - Correction, the older kids playground in Blackwell Park

 is being renovated, not the toddler playground.