A new roller rink and sports court on the beach were supposed to open this weekend, but city officials have postponed because of “unforeseen construction delays,” according to a statement from the Long Beach Public Works Department.

Construction has been going on for about eight months on the project, which promises to bring a roller skating area and another full-size basketball court to the beach where Junipero Avenue ends at the sand.

A grand opening ceremony was planned for Saturday, but the city sent out a notice saying it would be pushed to an unspecified later date because a contractor hadn’t finished work on the rink, according to a spokesperson for Councilmember Cindy Allen.

The pavement wasn’t ready for skaters and also was missing the planned striping, according to Rahul Sen, Allen’s chief of staff.

A rendering of the Juniper Beach roller rink and sports courts courtesy the city of Long Beach.

“It’s a contractor issue,” he said. “The rink is incomplete.”

The Public Works Department now hopes to have construction done by mid-October, at which point the rink will open to the public, according to spokesperson Jocelin Padilla-Razo.

The planned custom shade structure will be installed later in the year, she said.

Jeremiah Dobruck is executive editor of the Long Beach Post where he oversees all day-to-day newsroom operations. In his time working as a journalist in Long Beach, he’s won numerous awards for his investigative reporting and editing. Before coming to the Post in 2018, he wrote for publications including the Press-Telegram, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.