During the summer, construction began on Delta College’s $13 million renovation project of the damaged softball, baseball, football, and track fields. The aim of the project, funded by the remaining Measure L bond funds, and issuing Certificates of Participation (COPs) for the balance of the funds required to complete the Project. The project was approved at the Sept. 6 board meeting.
While the construction of the softball, baseball, football, and track fields occurs; all games and meets are still held off-campus at various schools throughout Stockton.
Several meetings were held during the summer and field trips were arranged with the coaches to examine the fields and track surfaces, meet with manufacturers, and ask questions about each type to identify that all sports requirements for each field and track were covered, according to the Nov. 21 board meeting.
Construction is focused on getting the softball and baseball fields, “completed February 2025 so that those two sports can be back on campus,” said Director of Facilities Planning and Management Stacy Pinola in an email interview.
Pinola also said the football and track field will follow in July 2025 and complete project renovations finished by August 2025.
According to a slide presentation from the July 2022 board meeting, “Over the last 5-years the Athletic Program has had to adjust their training methods due to an increase in athletic injuries. Injuries that can be associated with (sic) defective surfaces.”
The project was approved in September 2022 for the timeline of the fields to be completely updated by December 2024 but the task to approve the construction team and a design-build process took several months.
By Nov. 21, 2023, The McGuire & Hester Proposal won the contract with a proposal for, “(1) Programming and Collaboration Phase Services (“Phase 1 Services”); (2) Design Through Agency Approval and Final Guaranteed Maximum Price Phase Services (“Phase 2 Services”); and (3) Insurance Costs, for the Design-Build Contract.”
The design-build process allowed for the acceleration of the completion of the project, cost containment, reduction of construction complexity, and reduced exposure to risk for the community college district.
“We worked with our Purchasing Department on the design/building process for Request for Qualification for firms to provide their experiences with such a project. The review committee held several meetings with each firm that submitted their qualification. The committee held a final interview in which the committee deliberated before choosing McGuire and Hester,” said Pinola.
Pinola also said that she wanted to “thank the Athletic Department and coaches that have made the sacrifice of holding practice and games off campus for us to do the construction. We are excited about having our student athletes back on campus for practices and games.”
Correction: The athletics field construction project was approved to use a design-build process in September 2022. The process was incorrectly named in the initial version of this article on page 12 of the Sept. 6 edition of the newspaper.
