The price tag for a new $2.3 million all-weather track at Radford High School ballooned to $10.3 million after the discovery of both contaminants and munitions in the soil of the athletic field it surrounds.
The Navy has awarded an $8 million contract to clean up the former naval salvage yard rubble and dredged debris found in December during the initial excavation work to replace the high school’s cinder running track with a synthetic track.
The contract will also include screening for munitions after workers recently unearthed a small projectile fuse, some empty small arms ammunition cartridge casings and part of a 5-inch projectile cartridge in the soil.
"This project is complex, and our goal is to ensure everything is done properly and thoroughly the first time," Aaron Poentis, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Hawaii environmental director, said in a statement.
The athletic field was built on former Navy property at the edge of a former Naval disposal site, the Makalapa Crater landfill, where construction debris and dredged material were dumped going back to the 1930s.
The Makalapa Crater site is being studied under the Navy’s Environmental Restoration Program for possible contamination cleanup.
The Navy last week met with the community to explain the Radford remediation project and its timeline. The entire athletic field has been off-limits to students and staff since mid-December, and the work has meant that the Radford football team will not have any home games this season.
According to the Navy, former and current students who have used the track and field areas have nothing to worry about because they were not exposed to underground debris.
Regarding the project’s timeline, Navy officials that they couldn’t start the project right away because it took time to acquire funding, award contracts, gain access to the property and plan for work involving chemical contamination and munitions-related debris.
Officials said that while the soil at the athletic field tested positive for lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury, the rest of the campus came up clean.
Denise Emsley, Navy public affairs officer, said the site will include 25-foot munition safety zones and certified personnel to address potential explosive hazards. A special screening machine will be used to sift for all possible munitions-related debris, she said.
No Radford students will be in danger during the project, officials said, as long as they do not enter the closed-off area.
The project is expected to start Friday and continue until the end of November, at which time the state Department of Education’s construction contractor will install a new irrigation system for the football field and complete the track resurfacing. The Navy will then place new sod on the field in late spring in time for the 2015 football season, officials said.
The Navy’s plan calls for its contractor to excavate contaminated soil anywhere from 1 foot to 3 feet in depth and haul it away for disposal. A "geo-fabric barrier," or liner, will be laid down with clean soil placed on top.
Emsley said the Navy has also agreed to clean up two other sites where soil was hauled away before the dirt was discovered to be contaminated. One site is in Kaneohe and the other in Kapolei, she said.
