Skaters’ Paradise

Skateboarders flock to Joannes Sk8 Park

Joannes Sk8 Park Green Bay

By Sean Ryan

The Joannes Sk8 Park waited a long, quiet winter for Green Bay's children to roll all over it, but spring is here, and the park is calling skaters to tear around its jumps, decks, rails and bowls.

"It may not look like much compared to some of your larger buildings, but there was a lot of skill involved," said Brad Deprez, secretary treasurer for general contractor IEI General Contractors Inc., De Pere. "You've got the curves. Then you've got the obstacles as it's curving. And then you've got the different heights."

The 22,000-square-foot skate park is Wisconsin's largest and Green Bay's first. It was built on the site of the abandoned Joannes Park swimming pool with money donated by local children, parents and organizations, Deprez said.

IEI had four months last summer to rip out the floor of the pool and pour in place 625 square yards of concrete. No small task since the park required boxes, ramps and walls for skaters to trick off of, Deprez said, and everything had to harden at uniform heights, angles and curves.

"You had to encompass all the elements in a single pour sometimes," he said. "The walls of the swimming pool were left there, so it was just the floor that we took out."

Skater haven

Project Name: Joannes Sk8 Park Location: Green Bay Submitting Company: IEI General Contractors Inc., De Pere General Contractor/Construction Manager: IEI General Contractors Inc., De Pere Architect: Schreiber Anderson Associates, Madison Engineer: No Engineer Owner: City of Green Bay Project Cost: $380,000 Start Date: June 2002 Completion Date: September 2002

The park has stainless steel coping around all of the edges to make it easier for skaters to grind along obstacle edges with their wheels. It also has a bowl much like a swimming pool for skaters to roll through and perform aerial tricks.

It took serious cooperation and coordinating for IEI's crew to organize its subcontractors and suppliers to meet the city's September deadline for completion. Workers overcame the technical difficulties and the blistering mid-summer heat rising from the pavement to finish the job before late-completion penalties kicked in.

The city opened the park to the public near the end of October, Deprez said, so local residents didn't have much of a chance to use it before winter struck. Throughout the summer, crews had to defend the incomplete park from neighborhood skaters who wanted to practice their ollies, nollies and kickflips before fall arrived.

Although crews were fighting to keep skaters off the Sk8 Park during construction, Deprez said he was happy the winter was over so he could see the park put to use.

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