Construction of a new dock at Lake Wilderness Park is scheduled to begin Dec. 18.

The City Council approved a bid to build the new dock at the Nov. 24 council meeting.

The existing dock was built in 1972. Concerns over safety arose in 2011 when a condition survey was conducted and the support pilings were failing.

The new dock is scheduled to be mostly complete by April 13, 2015.

Constructing a dock in the winter may not seem like ideal weather conditions, but Parks and Recreation Director Greg Brown said it was either in the colder months or in late summer for the construction.

Brown told The Reporter the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has a strict window of time when pilings cannot be drilled into lake beds, April to July. And because the lake is in high use during the late summer months, “We do it in the fall or winter,” Brown said.

He also said a majority of the concrete dock will be constructed off-site. The only thing that will be done at the park will be drilling the pilings and final assembly.

In addition to a new dock, Lake Wilderness Park will also be getting a new boat rental float built by the same contractor, Neptune Marine.

Neptune Marine’s bid, $464,808, for both the dock and boat rental float was about $60,000 less than what the council had budgeted for in 2014.

The city, however, increased the contingency amount from 5 percent to 15 percent because of uncertainties associated with driving new piling into the lake bed.

Due to the increased contingency for both design, 20 percent, and construction, 15 percent, the total cost of the project is estimated to be about $655,000. The original budgeted amount of $525,000 did not include the boat rental float, which was estimated at $83,000 as a bid alternate.

Not putting the boat rental float into the calculation, the project is still estimated to be about $50,000 more than the original budgeted amount. According to city documents, that difference is “partially due to inflation.”

The new dock and boat rental float are two items on the list for phase 1 of 10 in the city’s master plan for the park that was created in 2007. The other two items on the list for phase 1 are a swim/dive platform and a “fun island” with a slide going into the water.

Those projects, according to Brown, probably won’t be built anytime soon.

The master plan is way for the department to dream of what they would like to see happen, Brown said. But, there are other options to look at that aren’t as costly.

He said there are inflatable products on the market that would be a less permanent but would still be a good recreational attraction for the park.