PORT ANGELES — Peninsula College’s dream field likely will have to remain just that this fall.
Originally slated to open in August, $1.5 million Sigmar Field now isn’t expected to be usable until late November at the earliest.
Problems with weather, materials and city permits led to a series of delays that will keep the contractor, Premier Field Development, Inc., of Lake Stevens, from being able finish the artificial turf field by the scheduled date.
Thus, the Pirates’ new on-campus playpen — the first of its kind on the North Olympic Peninsula — is not expected to be a part of the 2010 soccer season.
“It’s kind of tough, but you can’t do anything about the weather,” said Peninsula men’s soccer coach Andrew Chapman, whose team will share Civic Field with a number of other user groups this season.
“You can’t do anything about the soil. There’s nothing you can do about that.
“It’s unfortunate.”
The original time line for the field was pretty much doomed from the start, according to Pirates athletic director Rick Ross.
First, administrators had to delay the start time while they figured out the scope of the field; namely if it would be a multi-purpose facility with a focus on soccer or one that would also have a softball diamond.
After that issue was resolved, the project was further bogged down in the city permit process.
“Between those two things, we lost about two months on the front end of the project,” Ross said.
“Plan A was we start construction in mid-May when softball was over and we’re on [the field] in mid-August.
“But we didn’t start construction until the end of July.”
More unforeseen delays came after that as well.
There were problems with the soil underneath the field, forcing the contractor to remove it.
Fill materials delivered for the drainage system were also not up to specifications, causing another delay. Then the rains came the last few weeks, stalling the project even further.
“They were trying to get it all in and done before the rain hit, but we didn’t get started early enough,” Ross said.
The scheduled completion date is now Dec. 1.
Once it is finished, the college will have a state-of-the-art outdoor athletic complex usable throughout the year.
The 99,000-square-foot field will be covered in new artificial turf made by Sportexe, with only a quarter-inch slope from one side of the field to the other.
The next closest artificial turf field is on the Kitsap Peninsula.
A walking track will be added around the outside of the field in the coming weeks.
Infrastructure for lights also will be put in, with the lights expected to be added later when more funds are available.
There are also plans to add a covered grandstand in the future.
“We’re looking at having this be a community field,” Ross said in an interview earlier this year. “At whatever point we’re able to do lights, it will certainly open that door.”
Capital for the field was raised through a variety of fundraising efforts as well as capital project money from the state.
The complex replaces the grass field used by the men’s soccer and softball teams in past years.
The college dropped the softball program last spring in favor of women’s soccer, allowing it to gear the new facility more toward soccer.
There is still a slim hope that the men’s and women’s soccer teams could use the field at the very tail end of the season.
“I think that’s still in the realm of possibility, but these last few days are hurting that,” Ross said.
The way the men are playing now — the Pirates are the only undefeated team in the NWAACC at 6-0-2 overall — a home playoff game in mid-November appears to be a virtual lock.
Whether that will be played at Civic or Sigmar is up in the air.
“We’re not planning on it right now, but there is an outside hope,” Chapman said.
“Since we knew [the field] was going to go in, we’ve been looking forward to that. And we put in a team that was kind of built around what we were going to have.
“It’s too bad, but maybe there’s still some soccer gods out there that like us enough that we might be able to get it by the end of the season.”
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Sportswriter Matt Schubert can be reached at matt.schubert@peninsuladailynews.com.
