TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Shawnee County is closer to building a new playground attraction at Gage Park called an “Adventure To Sky Trail.”

Commissioners approved a $1.2 million “base bid” to RCI Adventure Products for an aerial adventure trail, which will span the length of “Playland” 15 feet in the air with an enclosed net structure and slides.

The funding will come from the Gage Park Improvement sales tax with a goal to start installation by summer 2025 and finish most of the playground by summer’s end.

Plans are in place to start replacing all the playground equipment in a couple of weeks so kids will have something to play on during installation.

“We want to make sure that during this whole process, we always got something for people to do,” said Laurent. “So, even though we are going to put this massive sky trail in, there will still be brand new equipment down low, you know ground level that you can come play on and that’s pretty exciting as well. So, it is a complete overhaul of the space.”

“We are replacing everything with things that I think that people will really enjoy. You know, it’s a very popular area as it is, and I think this is only going to make it better.”

Shawnee Co. Parks and Rec. Director Tim Laurent says they tried to make the “sky trail” all-accessible but cost concerns mean the sky trail will only be partially “all-accessible,” after they learned achieving such a task would more than double the project’s cost.

“We spent probably about six months trying to come up with a way to make that happen and it just unfortunately was cost prohibitive for us to do it. So, what we are going to do though is everything else we are putting in will be accessible,” said Tim Laurent, Director of Shawnee Co. Parks and Recreation. “So, while that piece itself won’t be. They’ll be plenty of things. Virtually everything else we have will be accessible.“

Laurent indicated on a map of the design during his presentation that they will make an all-accessible piece next to the start of the aerial trail and a “Toddler area” near the middle of the trail that is all accessible as well.

“We are very excited it’ll be like nothing that we have in Topeka or really nothing like that in this area,” Laurent said.