GILROY—Ten years after sprouting synthetic grass and a modern running surface—gifts from hometown hero and NFL superstar star Jeff Garcia—Gilroy High School’s main sports venue is getting another complete stadium makeover.
This time, it was voters who approved $150 million in bonds back in 2008, Measure P, who will pay the nearly $2 million price tag.
Last year, the Gilroy Unified School District spent $330,555 on the design and remodeling of aluminum bleacher seating for both the home and visiting teams. Aisles of stairways were strengthened as was the tiered bleacher seating itself. Special seating areas for wheelchairs and ramp accesses were built, all to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.
This year, school officials and contractors are hurrying to finish work on the track and field themselves before school resumes for the 2015-16 school year.
Indeed, they don’t believe the surfaces will be ready to be played on for the first several home games, so GHS teams will play across town at Christopher High School until the new stadium is ready, according to school officials.
The price tag for the fieldwork alone is $1.6 million, according to Alvaro Meza, assistant superintendent for business services and Jim Bombaci, director of facilities planning and management.
After removal of the old synthetic grass, the subsurface is filled with 12 inches of crushed rock and underlaid with a ¾-inch layer of Styrofoam as a shock absorber right below the top layer, in this case Astroturf, according to Bombaci.
The existing track surface will be grinded down then covered with a mix of epoxy and new rubber to lend it some give.
After that, one of the nation’s few experts who is accredited to do such work will stripe the track and field surface to Olympic specifications, a requirement if athletes’ scores, marks and times are to be accepted in the greater world of track and field competition.
On the football field, rain and irrigation water will be collected under the surface by an elaborate web of porous fiber and pipes designed to capture and convey surface water to underground runoff pipes that ring the football field.
And instead of sprinkler heads dotting the field itself, which can be a hazard, all watering will be done under the new design by water cannons sited along the edge of the 100-yard football field and with enough power to shoot streams of water to mid-field.
The GHS stadium is one of nearly 50 projects started since 2011, many of them completed for a total of $65.8 million.
They include new kitchens at Rucker and Rod Kelley elementary school, a $2.5 million theater and student center at GHS and a more than $6 million renovation of Glen View Elementary School.
