Athletic Complex Construction Hindered By Rains

You want the good news or the bad news first?

The bad news: the Glenwood Athletic Complex is four to six weeks behind schedule.

The good news: the Glenwood Community School District’s targeted mid-September “substantial completion” date is still within reach, according to Superintendent Devin Embray.

“That’s the goal,” Embray said. “I’m an optimist. But a lot depends on the rain.”

Heavy rain this past spring is indeed being blamed for the stalled work on the $6.5 million overhaul to the athletic complex the district began last November.

“The rain has been relentless,” Embray said. “So it’s been tough to get anything done. As soon as it dries out enough to get something going, it ends up raining on us.”

Yet, Embray and Genesis Contracting Group, the district’s general contractor on the project, are confident Glenwood could still host its first home football game Sept. 20 - homecoming weekend - against Dallas Center-Grimes.

“Substantial completion,” Embray said, means the field could be in use while construction continues in other areas.
“We may not have everything done,” Embray said. “If the field is done and the track is done and most everything safety-wise is done, we’ll probably play on it anyway.”

Playing the Rams’ scheduled Aug. 30 season-opening home game on the new field has already been ruled out. Activities Director Jeff Bissen is currently in the process of securing an alternative “home” site for the game. The Rams’ games Sept. 6 and Sept. 13 are both on the road.

Embray said Council Bluffs Lewis Central, Treynor and Plattsmouth, who all have artificial turf fields, are among the locations being considered to host the season opener. Finding an alternative venue isn’t new for Glenwood. While the Rams were unable to host track and field meets this past spring due the construction, the district rented Lewis Central’s track for three “home” meets.

The project began to show signs of delay late in the spring due to the heavy rain and flooding that plagued the region much of March and April. In early May, Embray guessed the project was likely two weeks behind schedule.
The project currently causing the biggest delay is work on the track and field area. The ground on that site has yet to dry enough to allow for the complicated process of laying the new artificial turf and the track.

The Glenwood Board of Education held a special meeting Friday with Embray and civil engineers to discuss the project that is now more than a month behind schedule. The board voted to proceed with a change order that will have Genesis going to an “aggressive schedule” in the hope to cut into those delays. The board also approved the installation of additional geo-gridding under the field.

Embray said the change order will add an estimated $235,000 to the cost of the project.

The district is paying for the project out of its voter approved 10-year, Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) and the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education (SAVE) monies it receives through the one-cent sales tax levy.

“It’ll cost us more money but it will bring in more people working extended hours and extended days to try and get caught up,” Embray said of the aggressive scheduling change. “That’s our goal right now. But if it continues to rain, even with this schedule, we’re probably not going to meet that (completion date).”

Before the district’s new aggressive schedule can be implemented, however, the site would have to dry out and stay that way for some time.

The 6,200 square foot locker room and concession building, dubbed the “gateway building,” and the stadium grandstand are both “on schedule,” according to Embray.

“It’s everything related to the track and field that are behind schedule,” he said.

A compaction test is scheduled for this week to determine if the football field and track area – which covers roughly 90,000 square feet – is ready for the installation of the playing surface and running track. Denison-based Midwest FieldTurf was conracted this spring to install the new artificial paying surface. The field will be polyethylene blend of fibers that is backfilled with layers of silica sand and crumb rubber and meant to replicate real grass but more resilient.
But even with a passing compaction test, Embray said, contractors will likely have to treat the field with “kid gloves” as they lay out the geo-grid that will then be topped with a base layer of gravel nine inches deep.

“We can’t have 300 trucks driving on it dropping rock,” he said. “The water table out there  and the field may be perfectly fine when it passes its test, but when you start driving that many trucks on it, you can have problems.”
Embray said Genesis has already made plans to off load the rock to a central drop off point and then use conveyors and other low-impact equipment to lay out the rock. A large retaining wall that will run along the complex’s driveway turnabout off Sivers Road began last week and is expected to be completed soon. After the wall in installed, dirt compaction will lay the ground work for the pouring of the concrete outlay for the sidewalks and the grandstand pad in the complex.

The grandstand itself will be fabricated in Ohio and shipped to the site in pieces where it will then be installed.