Vancouver Park Board opens city’s largest playground complete with high flying zipline  

 

A high wire adventure awaits children in the new Creekside Park playground.

Measuring more than 1,700 square metres (including grass, plants and seating), it’s the most accessible and largest in the city. It also comes with a 22-metre long zipline.

The playground cost $900,000 to build and features a number of challenging, imaginative and natural play opportunities such as climbing tower, giant tube slide, swings, play hut with ramp, musical instruments, water, and sand play area. Most of these play features are designed to be accessible to children in wheelchairs.

The playground, which has a blue and yellow rubberized surface, is one of the few in the city with a zipline. It also includes more than 30 shade trees, seating, lawn, and picnic areas.

The playground is located in 2.53-hectare Creekside Park adjacent to Science World, on the east edge of False Creek. In 2011, a nearby playground was removed to accommodate the expansion of Science World and pedestrian and cycling path upgrades along the seawall. At that time, a few of the play elements were relocated to the north end of Creekside Park where a playground for small children existed.

The Park Board manages 159 playgrounds across the city. Several have been identified for replacement and Park Board staff is working to prioritize the needs balancing operational resources for maintenance, financial resources and donations available for the projects, and nature play and accessible features where they are needed the most. Park Board staff has been working with parents and other stakeholders on playground designs.

A playground at Clark Park is expected to open this fall, while a playground at Douglas Park will open mid next year. Andy Livingstone Park playground opened in March.