The Treasure Mountain Sports Complex could be finished by the end of November after a series of unexpected delays postponed its completion.
Park City School District Business Administrator Randy Upton said construction crews completed the softball field last fall, and work on the baseball field wrapped up within the past few weeks. Fields designated for the soccer and lacrosse teams are receiving their finishing touches, with most of the remaining work focused on the press box and the locker rooms.
Contractors still need to build seven tennis courts on the north end of the complex, which Upton said will likely be the last piece of the project. The district originally intended to build eight courts, but Upton said space constraints led to a reduction in scope.
“As far as getting things done, we’re looking at November, but a lot of that is going to be weather-dependent,” Upton said. “If we have a winter like we had during the 2022-23 year, then that may change some things because you have certain curing processes that happen with the tennis courts.”
Upton said the district’s priority is finishing the fields, but officials want the tennis courts to be playable for the spring season.
He added that the renovation of Dozier Field on the other side of Park City High School will likely be completed before the Treasure Mountain Sports Complex. However, last Friday’s football game was held on Dozier Field despite the ongoing construction.
“The timeline they’re telling us (for Dozier Field) is the end of October,” Upton said. “But we’ve heard a lot of deadline dates, and we haven’t met many of them, so we’ll see.”
Upton said a variety of factors led to construction delays for the Treasure Mountain site, including the presence of contaminated soil and an alleged unauthorized dumping of groundwater into Silver Creek.
“A lot of it was us slowing things down, and I’ll take the blame for that, to make sure … that we’re doing what we’re supposed to do, especially after the water issue that happened,” Upton said. “We were methodically slower, even with the contractor, because we wanted to make sure we didn’t move dirt, we didn’t touch dirt, we didn’t do anything with dirt until we had the responses that we needed. We wanted to do it right, and there’s the public safety aspect with the workers out there.”
The Dozier Field project hasn’t had as many delays, but Upton said moving the press box and locker rooms from the north side of the site to the west side, after Park City officials alerted the district to a mandatory 100-foot setback along Lucky John Drive, threw a temporary wrench into the process.
“The time you want to put in turf is not the end of the summer because every other high school in America is trying to get turf on their field this summer,” Upton said. “Crews are thin, so we’ve been working on field turf and trying to schedule that. … There were a lot of factors that went into that, which didn’t help with the delay either.”
Upton said the district is “tired of dealing with construction,” especially since students have returned and are now navigating the ongoing work while attending the high school, which is sandwiched between the two projects.
“It’s been an everyday thing, even on the weekends,” Upton said. “I think for the public and the community, and especially for our kids and student athletes, when it’s totally done, it’s going to be well worth it.”
Despite the delays, Upton said the project is still coming in under budget, partly because the district built in contingencies for unexpected costs. He said interest rates have also worked in the district’s favor.
District officials previously estimated the total price of the upgrades will be $48.7 million.
“We’re not dipping into any more coffers or our fund balance to take care of it,” Upton said. “We’ve been able to manage it within the program, and that’s because of the interest and because we built in contingencies, both with the contractor and with us internally.”
Upton said district officials are excited to open the new sports complex and renovated Dozier Field to the public, and the district will likely hold a ribbon-cutting to celebrate with community members after the project is finished.
“When it’s done, it’s going to be something to celebrate,” Upton said. “It really will. It’s going to be great for kids in our community.”