South Lake Park Bioretention Gardens

The South Lake Park Bioretention Garden project consists of a survey, layout, design, and plans for parking lot reconstruction and bioretention grading and underdrain system. The layout and grading for both the parking lots and bioretention cells were challenging aspects for the following reasons: matching the existing grade for adjacent constraints, regulating the amount of water that each cell received, and taking special care to evenly distribute how the water flowed into the cells to minimize erosion and possible cell damage. Applied Ecological Services, Inc. (AES) was asked to design alternative BMPs as demonstration projects at two parks in Overland Park, KS. AES was selected because of its expertise in natural systems and ecological restoration. Understanding that failure of poorly designed BMPs has resulted in public doubts, AES anchored their design by conducting infiltration tests of engineered bioretention soils. The attention the team gave to the site layout, construction sequence, and native plant selection has lead to successful results.