Update: October 7 – Much like many things in this world right now, the pandemic has put this project on hold. Here’s the message from City of Boulder Parks & Recreation:
Parks and Recreation staff would like to provide an important update on the status of the new skatepark and pumptrack planned for Valmont City Park, Howard Hueston Park and Scott Carpenter Park. These projects started nearly a year ago and, needless to say, there have been several challenges this year that have impacted our ability to deliver these projects to the community. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to reduce our department budget over $2M and has resulted in reduction in staff and reprioritizing our projects. Similarly, staff who were working on this project have been reassigned many times to help with the COVID response and recovery as well as the recent city-wide tree branch clean up from the early snowstorm after Labor Day. The result is that we simply had to pause on the skatepark/pumptrack project while we respond to more urgent needs. The community should know that these delays were not the result of our contractors, Evergreen Skateparks or ARC/Velosolutions. The contractors have remained excited and eager to start as soon as the city is able, it’s just that we need to be responsible with the capacity and funding given these extremely uncertain times.
Moreover, the skatepark/pumptrack projects are still a priority and we are currently restarting the work. The target timeline is to start construction early next spring, 2021, so that the parks are ready for next summer. Funding is still identified for these projects and barring any further crises, the team will be refining the exact amount of work over the next few weeks. This fall and winter, we will be applying for grants to leverage our funding for the projects, obtaining construction permits and starting the initial demolition to make room for the new improvements. Ongoing communication will be posted to the website and sent to the email group. The staff would also like to thank the Green Block team and especially Raul Pinto of Satellite Boardshop who continue to partner with the city to provide the skate options at the Valmont Pavilion. In fact, more improvements are in the works and skaters will likely see work this fall to improve Green Block.
Finally, staff want to thank everyone for their patience and understanding as we move forward during this uncertain time.
Valmont Bike Park will be getting a paved pump track by Velosolutions! This is part of a larger project to build new skate park features at Valmont City Park, Scott Carpenter and Howard Heuston Park. The community will have a chance to weigh in on design in the coming month, check out the Project website for more details.