Nearly two months after the Twin Lakes Playground burned to the ground, the cleanup process began Tuesday morning.

Two employees from GR Cheeseman Construction strapped on protective masks and boarded excavators to start scooping up debris from the April 24 fire. The cleanup is expected to take a week or two, Project Manager Alexandra Pierce said Tuesday.

The debris was giving off fumes for the first few days after the fire, and the City and Borough of Juneau’s engineering department has been closely tracking the contaminants in the air.

“We’ve had an environmental consultant on site and monitoring the air quality and it’s perfectly safe for being around the area, just general public use,” Pierce said. “Just as an extra precaution with contractors, whose faces are down in the material as they’re cleaning it up and disturbing it, we’re asking that they wear protective gear.”

The debris is headed to the landfill after the excavators tear down the remains of the play area. After the debris is all gone, Pierce said the next step depends on the state of the soil and whether or not there are contaminants present. She doesn’t expect the area to be contaminated and said the city might even plant grass in the area before the rebuild begins next spring.

At the moment, the playground area is fenced off and visitors aren’t allowed in. Much of the rest of the park is still open, though Pierce said the setting isn’t exactly a relaxing one.

“We’re asking that people maybe use other parks while the cleanup is happening, just because it’s loud and noisy and there’s heavy equipment, trucks rolling in and out,” Pierce said. “We do have the path open. You can access it from the pullout where the bus stop is. The rest of the park is open to the public, but it’s probably not the best park experience at the moment.”

CBJ’s insurance is covering the cost of the cleanup process, just as it’s also covering the basic construction costs. The city wants to make some improvements to the accessibility of the park, and the Juneau Community Foundation is accepting donations for those improvements.

The outpouring of support has been swift, as the community has donated more than $160,000 to the rebuild effort. That support has taken a variety of other forms, including ribbons that are hanging from the chain-link fence around the remains of the playground. The colorful ribbons stood out against the grayness of a rainy Tuesday, sporting messages from children who used to play at the playground, known to many for its large castle play area.

“Everyone loved it here, even the older kids,” one ribbon said.

“I miss cassal (sic) park, love Ray,” another said.

The city wants to make sure that these voices are heard in the design of the new playground. CBJ is working with a steering committee made up mostly of people who were involved with the playground’s initial construction in 2007. That effort was largely volunteer-driven, and Pierce said the city wants to keep the public as involved as possible this time around too.

“It was what made the park so special in the first place and what made people so attached to it,” Pierce said. “In that spirit, we’ve convened the original steering committee that was involved with putting the initial project together. We’re moving forward as a group.”

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• Contact reporter Alex McCarthy at alex.mccarthy@juneauempire.com.

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