Part of any capital campaign to improve facilities for students includes trying to ensure parity among school sites. Frederick Peabody funded the construction of Peabody Stadium for $100,000 and the stadium opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1924. Santa Barbara High School (SBHS) does not have a track field that meets the standards of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) while Dos Pueblos High School and San Marcos High School both have all weather synthetic track surfaces. Currently, SBHS utilizes the track field facilities at Santa Barbara City College. As with all of our high school sites, there is a strong desire to create an all season facility that has broader use for students and student athletes on campus.
The Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) performed significant analysis for retrofitting the existing stadium and bleachers. The results deemed retrofitting was not feasible due to the cost impacts and the ability to make full use would be severely impacted by the retrofit techniques deemed necessary to meet current codes. In addition, the condition and configuration of the track and field provides limited use for students on campus due to substandard conditions of the surface and complications from site drainage. Peabody Stadium was built before building codes existed and at that time, there were no standards for athletic facilities. In addition, prior to the stadium being developed, the area was a large drainage basin receiving water from all of the developed area above Santa Barbara High School. To accommodate the transfer of storm water under the high school property, two 36” diameter drainage conduits were installed.
The scope of the project (Stadium Upgrades without Storm Drain Upgrades) will replace all of the facilities at Peabody Stadium except the visitor’s bleachers. This includes demolition of the existing concrete seating structure, demolition of the existing portable rest room building. expanding the area to accommodate an eight lane all weather (CIF) track, artificial turf field and new concrete grandstand with home side seating for 2260 (existing seating is 2,800) with the visitor seating remaining at 1,136. The seating is being repositioned to align with the center of the field. The new structure will include restrooms, and storage. The “Walk of the Dons” will be upgraded and a side access created. The historic ticket booth will remain. The landscaping will include oaks, olives and palms. Succulents and shrubs are also included. New directional and shielded stadium lights and a new sound system with directional speakers is included. Unanticipated cost increases for this part of the project include the discovery of the corrosive nature of the soil, California Environmental Quality Act requirements, additional fire service requirements, additional retaining wall requirements, additional electrical service requirements, increased requirements mandated by the Division of the State Architect and inflation and a construction contingency of 10 percent.
During the investigation of the underground drainage system, during the design phase of the project, it was discovered that these two large drainage conduits were not only in need of replacement, but they were undersized due to years of development of housing resulting in additional surface water. Due to this increased volume of storm water, additional storm water conduits will be required to be maintained on site as well as increasing the size of the replacement conduits from two 36” pipes to one 42” and one 48” pipe. These costs were not anticipated and not included in the original budget for the project.
A total project cost is divided into two areas, hard construction costs and soft costs. Hard construction costs are those costs associated with the contractor's price for construction of the project. All other costs for required activities are referred to as soft costs. Examples of soft costs are: design fees for architects and engineers, surveying fees, geotechnical design fees, inspection, soil testing, city permits for work done in City of Santa Barbara right of ways, utility company fees and permits, Division of the State Architect plan check fees, hazardous waste fees, environmental review fees, legal fees, printing costs, State Department of Toxic Substances Control fees, State Department of Education approval costs and storm water management fees. In short, there and numerous costs included in the total project cost in addition to the construction contract(s).
The SBUSD will have the construction manager for this project utilize a multi-prime delivery method. Using a multi-prime method, the construction manager acts as the general contractor and the district will hire the sub contracts for the various parts of the projects, much like a general contractor would do. This construction delivery method should save the district in general contractor overhead. In addition to this anticipated savings, the SBUSD should be able to qualify for and obtain a higher amount from state matching funds. The funding amount currently authorized does not include the costs of support facilities for the stadium itself and we are hopeful that the state grant amount will be increased to include these costs. Any savings on the project will be reported to the Board for their direction on use. These savings could be used to build out the space under the grandstands or for any other project within the district, as these funds would free up bond monies allocated to the project. (See the attached spreadsheet for a complete accounting of Peabody Stadium.).
The project is expected to start construction in March, 2017 and be completed within 18 months. Completion is expected in August, 2018 with the stadium being available for graduation ceremonies for the class if 2018.
On October 27, 2015 the board approved additional funds for Peabody Stadium in the amount of $4,000,000 from Measure Q 2010 bond funds. Staff is recommending the board approve allocating additional funds from Measure Q 2010 in the amount of $4,245,099 and $5,000,000 from Measure I 2016.