Construction crews are now on site building a new highly anticipated skateboard park on Gabriola Island. (RDN)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

big addition

Construction starts on Gabriola Island skateboard park

Sep 27, 2021 | 7:11 AM

GABRIOLA ISLAND — Vastly improved recreational amenities on Gabriola Island in recent years will soon take another step forward.

The Regional District of Nanaimo announced construction on the highly anticipated new skateboard park in Huxley Community Park started on Sept. 15 and is expected to be completed early in 2022, according to the RDN’s manager of parks services Yann Gagnon.

Several trees were recently removed from the site to create room for the new skate park for boarders and bikers.

The RDN confirmed the budget for the new facility is $774,000, with most of the funds covered by senior government grants.

RDN contributions and local donations rounded out the money needed.

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Rendering of a skateboard park now under construction at Gabriola Island’s Huxley Community Park. (RDN)

The project received a significant jolt in June 2020 when a combined grant of $567,000 in federal and provincial contributions were committed.

Establishing a skateboard park on Gabriola Island took several years to get to the construction phase after the idea was flushed out in a Huxley Park master plan process document dating back to 2015.

Resurfaced tennis courts, a new sports court with boards and new playground were centre pieces of phase one upgrades to Huxley Community Park completed in 2018.

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