photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Construction will soon begin on a new addition at Centennial Skate Park. The skate park is slated to close Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023, and a new street-style skate plaza will be completed at the far end of the existing skate park by the end of the year.

Starting Thursday, Centennial Skate Park will be closed as work to construct an addition to the park begins.

As the Journal-World reported, the city is integrating a “street-style plaza” with the existing skate park elements at Centennial Park, 600 Rockledge Road, as part of a $250,000 expansion project.

The vertical ramp near the site will remain open during the construction project, a city spokesperson said.

According to a social media post from the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department, the addition is slated to be complete by the end of the year. On Wednesday, construction equipment and fencing were already stationed around the site.

photo by: City of Lawrence

This aerial view of Centennial Skate Park shows the area where a new addition is set to be installed before the end of 2023.

Street-style skateboarding involves performing tricks on obstacles that wouldn’t exclusively be found in a skate park, like benches, stairs, handrails and any other architecture a skater might come across on a city street.

Oregon-based contractor Evergreen Skateparks is the company completing the work, the same contractor the city partnered with to complete the last major expansion at the skate park in 2021.