The long-awaited Library Park expansion is ready to go to bid with work expected to start in earnest after the Manteca Pumpkin Fair Oct. 2-3.

It will involve ripping out a segment of Poplar Avenue between the west entrance to the library parking lot and Manteca Avenue and replacing it with grass and other park improvements.

It also will mean removing part of Verizon’s back parking lot that the city obtained in a land swap to extend the park to the Tidewater Bikeway. The park, if viewed from overhead, will look like a gigantic arrow pointed south with the tip being formed where the Tidewater meets Manteca Avenue.

A new 28-foot wide gazebo will be put in place along the Tidewater where the Verizon parking lot is now located. It will include the creation of amphitheatre style seating for 75 using a combination of concrete and grass.

The project includes placing additional park furniture, lighting, electrical, trees, irrigation, walkways with brick banding and landscaping. Depending upon the bids received it may also include history walk paving where murals are planned along what is now the Verizon fence line paralleling Poplar Avenue, additional lighting to Center Street and more train-style seating that is near the water feature that went is as part of the initial phase of the park expansion.

The project is being paid for with redevelopment agency money as well as bonus bucks paid by developers for residnetial sewer allocation certainty.

The expanded Library Park is expected to cost the city $18,000 a year to maintain.

The City Council on Tuesday night is expected to award a bid to Brockman and Woody Electric in the amount of $43,900 to underground existing overhead PG&E power lines and a single Comcast line. The work is expected to start Oct. 4.

Initially land negotiations between the city and the phone company slowed down the project. During the time talks initially started there were three different corporations that owned the property - Contel, GTE, and Verizon. Once that was settled the next delay involved coordinating and negotiations with Verizon, PG&E. and Comcast for the relocation of various overhead lines.

The Library Park expansion employs a deliberate design that was created after receiving input from nearby residents and businesses. It will be about double the size of the original park.

The expanded park is divided into three areas - the gazebo-amphitheater, an open area for Whiffle ball and such as well as community fairs, and the playground segment.

The interactive water feature was designed as the park’s focal point. It combines in its design the concept of train tracks, agricultural fields, and irrigation canals -combines three elements critical to Manteca’s founding - in a pavement design pattern.

One segment of the water feature has low, arching jets representing the irrigation of agricultural fields. The play area is designed for younger kids.

The spray jets in the play area for older kids are computer controlled to mimic the rhythm of a train with the final jet of water from underground chambers being a huge gusher representing the train engine.

The water play feature is a stone’s throw from the original Cowell Station that served as the first rail stop for milk shipping in the late 19th century. It is also near where the old Southern Pacific Railroad station was before it was torn down.