photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Crews apply striping in the 500 block of Ninth Street on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026.

To make businesses easier to access during the Ninth Street stormwater project, the city is turning to a new type of parking – one right in the middle of the street.

On Wednesday, striping crews were painting new angled parking in the middle of the 500 block of Ninth Street. City spokesman Michael Leos said via email that there would be 13 temporary parking spaces there that will stay until Ninth Street reopens, which is expected to happen in July 2026.

As the Journal-World has reported, the city is spending over $20 million to replace the more-than-century-old storm sewers in central Lawrence. That’s completely closed a block of Ninth to traffic and impacted several businesses whose storefronts and parking faced the street there.

Leos’ email said business owners in the area had requested additional parking. This configuration of temporary spaces “provides additional parking capacity while maintaining traffic operations,” the email said.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

Crews apply striping in the 500 block of Ninth Street on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026.

This type of parking isn’t used anywhere else in the city, and it won’t be installed anywhere else around the project; although the city was considering putting more spaces on the west side of the construction area, it ultimately rejected that idea because of truck traffic from KU’s Gateway project.

Leos’ email said that no announcement had been made because the city couldn’t plan a date for the striping in advance. The work is sensitive to weather, and until “we had a suitable warm-weather window confirmed, we were not able to provide a reliable schedule.”

At Images Salon and Day Spa, right next to the new parking at 511 W. Ninth St., the work did come as a surprise – albeit a welcome one.

“I am very pleased that they came up with this plan,” said Rockie Browning, one of the salon’s owners.

“This morning, we had no idea,” said Rileigh Schmidt, an employee at the salon. She and Browning hadn’t heard about the work beforehand, and she said the salon had to talk to a foreman outside to find out what was going on.

Browning said the parking would help to draw in business to the area, not just by giving people a place to park but by letting them know it was open.

“People will look down the street and realize, “Oh, there’s traffic flow, so I can get down there,” he said.

While Schmidt said “it definitely would have been nice to have some kind of an idea” that the work was scheduled, she also thinks the added parking will be “nice” for businesses affected by construction. She’d heard of at least one business, 9th Street Mexican Tacos, where cars had reportedly been hit by rocks and other construction debris.

“So my hope is that with these parking spaces being further down, that won’t be an issue,” Schmidt said.

The spaces should be ready to use by Thursday, and Leos’ email said the city would be providing updated parking information.

photo by: Sylas May/Journal-World

New parking spaces in the 500 block of Ninth Street on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026.