DAN GERINGER, Daily News Staff Writer geringd@phillynews.com, 215-854-5961 Posted: Sunday, February 22, 2015, 3:01 AM

LAST SUMMER, Irene Madrak, executive director of the North Light Community Center in Manayunk, was having nightmares about a dream playground turning into a giant bowl of mulch soup.

Her dilemma began when KaBoom! - the company that builds playgrounds in a day with the help of community volunteers - offered one to North Light, which has delivered social services to families and kids since 1938 on Green Lane near Wilde Street.

"If we wanted a new KaBoom! playground," Madrak said, "we had to remove our old playground and 2,500 square feet of asphalt.

"KaBoom! only does engineered wood-fiber [mulch] as the playground safety base, so we had to dig down 14 inches," she said.

"It would act like a big clay bowl," she said. "I was afraid that if we dig the asphalt out, and fill that hole with what is basically wood mulch, when it rains we're going to get this big soup bowl of stormwater with mulch floating in it, which would not be pretty. I had nightmares about it."

Madrak turned to Dan Meier, a civil engineer from Duffield Associates who volunteers his services through the nonprofit Community Design Collaborative.

Meier designed an underground drainage system of perforated pipes to carry stormwater from the new playground out to the existing catch basin.

KaBoom! and 300 volunteers from the North Light community built the spectacular new playground on Sept. 30. There have been many heavy rains since then, and no flooding.

Stormwater permeates the playground's mulch surface and into Meier's underground pipes which carry it to the catch basin.

Read the original here:

Manayunk's North Light is eco-friendly haven for kids