How a down-to-the-wire effort from officials will bring the city a new $5.9 million whitewater park
Kayakers will soon have a new paddling destination in Roanoke. Aggressive and ambitious action from the southwest Virginia city’s management team is bringing a new $5.9 million, state-of-the-art whitewater park to downtown.
In-stream attractions like waves, chutes, drops, and eddies will be installed between three city parks along a mile or so span of the Roanoke River Blueway near the hip and historic Wasena neighborhood. Plans include five feature sites with paddling options that mostly cater to beginners and intermediate skill-building—but will also offer a fun workout for experts.
“We reached out to the community and the overwhelming consensus was that they wanted something that focused more on learning as opposed to being really gnarly,” says Roanoke’s park planning and development coordinator, Katherine Slusher, who is overseeing the project.
The goal is for the park to serve as a gateway for aspiring paddlers that ultimately gets them excited about exploring runs on other great regional waterways like the New River. It will join the Roanoke area’s already impressive offerings like 60 miles of purpose-built mountain biking trails at Carvins Cove Natural Area Preserve, a 30-mile greenway system, cyclocross course, and indoor climbing gym.
But the project isn’t just about paddling. Beautification and sustainability efforts will bring added trees, picnic spots, and native-plant-centered landscaping along the banks, as well as a new pedestrian bridge across the river in Wasena Park. Three new access points—two of them American Disabilities Act compliant—amphitheater-style stone stairwells that double as seating areas, an artificial beach, and inbuilt wading pools will help more people enjoy the waterway than ever before. Plans for a nearby parking area backed by a river-focused education and outdoor rec center are also being discussed.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen a project that’s generated this much unanimous support and excitement,” says Slusher. Everyone from city officials to regulatory agencies, businesses, community stakeholders, and residents “seem to be onboard and invested in bringing this to fruition.”
Investiture or otherwise, the fact that the whitewater park is moving ahead at all isn’t far from miraculous. It’s taken major efforts by city officials, project designers, and POCs at regulatory agencies to make it happen.
The idea of a whitewater project “was something that had been considered, but sort of filed away [on the proverbial back shelf],” says Slusher. Until recently, “this wasn’t something that was high up on anyone’s radar in terms of being a sincere possibility.”
Yes, the nonprofit Roanoke Outside Foundation had sponsored a 2015 feasibility study to identify and assess potential locations for a park. But cuts related to the Great Recession slashed Parks & Recreation budgets—and made a major undertaking seem like a pipe dream. The department subsequently focused on maintaining the assets it already had. Things were starting to turn around when the pandemic struck and once again upended the world.
But there were silver linings.
First, lockdowns inspired a massive surge in outdoor recreation across the U.S., which introduced many people to new, nature-centered hobbies and activities. Roanoke’s longstanding status as one of the Southeast’s most outdoor-friendly cities made it a prime destination for post-COVID exploration. Record-breaking $1.2 billion economic impacts in 2022 across Virginia’s Blue Ridge—a tourism alliance which spans the Roanoke Valley and is spearheaded by the city—spotlighted the continued potential of outdoor tourism. The numbers also reignited broad interest around expanding the city’s outdoor opportunities.
Then there was the Biden Administration’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. When it was confirmed that Roanoke would receive $64.5 million, the city manager resuscitated plans for a whitewater park. “The announcement came at a council meeting in June 2022, and we basically sprang into action immediately,” says Slusher.
She and her team were in a race with time to meet crucial deadlines that would determine whether the government funds would be released. Namely, the project had to be under contract for construction by the close of 2024 and completed by the end of 2026. The original feasibility study identified the area around Wasena Park as having the most potential, but it didn’t include designs. And those were necessary to get signoffs from regulatory agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
“The permitting process [for an in-stream park] is extremely rigorous and typically takes two to three years,” says Slusher. “So we knew we had to get things right the first time around and really thread the needle.”
She and her colleagues streamlined the process by tapping locally based environmental engineering firm Stantec, which the city’s wastewater management team had used for multiple successful projects. Not only were they “deeply knowledgeable about our local waterways and the regional regulatory environment,” says Slusher, “they were expanding pretty aggressively into the [whitewater park market].”
The team chose to focus on plans with features that took advantage of and sought to enhance the river’s existing topography and hydrology. A whirlwind of public input meetings, consultations with pro kayakers, expedited reviews from regulators, and revisions brought a final design that met or exceeded all environmental requirements—and left area paddling enthusiasts stoked about what’s to come.
Slusher issued a request for proposals in the fall of 2024. It came down to the wire, but she managed to get the project under contract with Maryland-based Environmental Quality Resources on December 27. Construction is slated to begin this spring.
“I’ll admit it has and continues to be a pretty intense process,” laughs Slusher. But considering the project’s momentum and the firm’s stalwart reputation, she feels confident “we’ll all be making our first runs [through the park] in late 2026.”
And when that happens? Slusher says she’ll likely take a moment to pause and reflect on what “an amazing and incredibly rewarding collaboration this has been, and all the effort that so many different people put into making it happen.”
