The $38.7 million Santa Barbara High School Peabody Stadium project is behind schedule, with an opening date not expected until August.
Graduation ceremonies this June will take place at the Santa Barbara Bowl, and the school district plans to use the National Guard Armory property parking lots to ease congestion in the surrounding neighborhoods, and use a shuttle service for families attending.
The 2,300-seat stadium and new press box was scheduled to open in April, but district staff and contractors told the school board that rainy days and recent disasters dramatically slowed the project.
In addition, a sub-contractor placed the poles for the retaining walls in the wrong place, which required removing and rebuilding it.
“We have had almost 60 work days lost,” said Thomas Steve Vizzolini, director of Facilities and Modernization. “We’re very far behind.”
Contractors have completed the grandstands and work that is below grade, including structural steel, concrete columns and decking. Overall, the project is 75-percent complete and was expected to be 90-percent done at this point.
Construction started in August 2017 and was half done by last August, according to the district.
The project is on track to be completed under budget, Vizzolini told the board. Construction change orders on the project have added up to just 0.7 percent ($206,265) of the $28.7-million construction budget.
“We’ve got some good news and bad news,” board member Kate Ford said at Tuesady’s meeting. “I am quite disappointed in the delay, but I understand it is because of the rain. I know this community is watching the project closely. All the schools, and Santa Barbara High School in particular, are really looking forward to this facility.
“The bottom line is that this stadium will get done and it will be beautiful,” she said.
The stadium includes a new track and artificial turf field to meet California Interscholastic Federation regulations.
The eight-lane-track will accommodate competitive athletic events, as well as everyday student and community use. The project will also replace the athletic sound and lighting systems for energy efficiency, and to mitigate noise impacts to areas outside the stadium.
Santa Barbara Unified board members got a stadium project estimate of $16.2 million in 2014 and rejected all bids in May 2017 when they came in at $30 million, which was $12 million over budget.
In July of that year, the board approved a $28-million construction bid and allocated more than $13 million of voter-approved Measure Q funding to the project.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
