Check it out: The skate park in Albany's Washington Park is now open. Construction just finished up, and Friday afternoon there were a bunch skaters trying it out.

Here are a bunch of photos and a few bits...

Photos

Look up, they're at the top in large format -- click or scroll all the way up.

A long time in the works

The park is on a handful of former tennis courts along Madison Ave -- "The Blue Banks" -- that had already been serving as a de facto skate park. The new portion of the park makes use of the lower section of those courts. The upper section is still largely untouched -- officials have said amenities could be added there in the future if money becomes available.

The budget for the park was $200,000. Funding for the project is coming from a state grant worth as much as $100,000; $12,000 from the Washington Park Conservancy; and the rest from a pool of money the city has set aside for these sorts of projects.

The action sports arm of Stantec, which has worked on skate parks around the country, contributed to the design of the park. And the skate park construction firm Misiano worked on the park along with the contractor WM. J Keller & Sons of Castleton. (Misiano posted some construction-in-progress photos if you're curious.)



Kanten Russell -- a project manager from the design firm Stantec, and a former pro skateboarder -- talking with people about the design at a public meeting last summer.

This project has been a long time coming. The skate park has officially been in the works since 2014. But the push for a skate park in Albany stretches back a long time before that. The venue is the result of a bunch of people advocating for it formally and informally for years. And public meetings leading up to construction drew engaged crowds.

The originally planned opening date for the park had been national Go Skateboarding Day, which was earlier this week. That date got pushed back of construction delays due to weather. (And it looks like there's still a little bit more work to do.) We heard from a city rep today that an official opening for the park will probably be in early July.

(Thanks, Eric!)

Earlier

+ Here's the Albany skate park design

+ Albany is finalizing a design for a skate park

+ Follow up: Albany skatepark planning