photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

A limestone ledge is pictured just west of Alvamar Drive along Bob Billings Parkway on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026.

A delay in construction work on the east side of Bob Billings Parkway has been partly due to contractor schedules and partly due to the discovery of a limestone ledge that the project team didn’t know about, according to the City of Lawrence.

The city recently gave an update on the Bob Billings project and about the “reduced construction activity” that some residents had asked about. As the Journal-World has reported, the project includes repaving from Wakarusa to Monterey Way and a complete reconstruction of the street from Monterey Way to Kasold. But some people had noticed that construction work seemed to have slowed in the past couple of weeks.

According to the city’s update, the delay is due in part to an “unforeseen issue involving the planned wall near the limestone ledge west of Alvamar Drive.”

Michael Leos, a city spokesman, told the Journal-World that the project team wasn’t aware of the ledge prior to construction. “The geotechnical report that was completed with the design didn’t identify this,” he said. But in July, the contractor found the ledge, which led to a change of plan for the retaining wall that was being built along the sidewalk.

“To complete the retaining wall according to the plans, the contractor would need to remove this stable limestone ledge and replace it with engineered fill (reinforced soil), a plan that the project team felt didn’t make much sense,” Leos said. “Moreover, there are other utility relocations that would need to happen in this area which would come with additional costs that we want to avoid.”

Leos said the city had been working with the contractor and designer on a new plan that would keep the limestone ledge in place.

The city also stated that the paving contractor temporarily switched over from the Bob Billings work to complete other projects it was obligated to do. Leos said that the contractor is now working to pave the eastbound lanes of Bob Billings, and the plan is to install temporary striping on those lanes by the end of next week. Following that, traffic can be shifted into them, and crews will switch to the westbound lanes.

The Journal-World reported in July that this work was expected to be finished by November; now, the city says it will be completed by the end of the year.

Another construction project in Lawrence has progressed faster than expected: the repaving of Iowa Street. That project began in July and reduced lanes on Iowa Street from Sixth Street to Harvard Road for a couple of weeks. Iowa Street is now back open, and while there is some construction work on the east side of the Ninth and Iowa intersection, that’s expected to be completed by Sept. 4.