One more day to comment on new field lights, as turf project rolls on, at Nino Cantu SW Athletic Complex

By Anne Higuera
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Thanks to David for the tip and photos showing work under way at the Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex upper softball field. The project includes a new synthetic turf field and new fencing. Lighting is also planned next year for the field, with public comment ending tomorrow — more on that later.

We reached out to Seattle Public Schools Project Manager Conrad Plyler about what’s involved in the immediate project. He says it’s one of the last two fields districtwide to be replaced in a decade-long process of removing those that have crushed rock and a crumb rubber layer under the artificial turf. Plyler explained that field surfaces need to be replaced every 10-12 years, and beginning in 2016, SPS started using a cork and sand layer in lieu of the crumb rubber, which “gets everywhere” and can impact salmon. He says the cork and sand combo is also, “more resilient for head trauma.” The fields at Madison Middle School and next to the gym at West Seattle High School were the most recent large fields to be replaced in West Seattle in 2023.

Work on the softball field started on June 18th, with removal of the old surfaces and the rubber. The new field will have a 25 millimeter “elastic layer,” then the sand and cork, and finally the artificial turf. The work is being funded by two levies — the 2025 BEX VI and 2022 Buildings, Technology and Academics/Athletics levy (BTA V). Plyler says the contractor, FieldTurf, USA, will finish the work, “no later than the start of school,” though possibly as soon as the middle of August. The contractor is performing the work under a cooperative contract that includes concurrent work on the track and field at Roosevelt High School and the track at Ballard High School.

The turf project is just the start of work planned for the field over the next year. The softball field, which Plyler says is smaller than regulation and is frequently used for JV practice, has no lighting, so SPS plans to install 6 new 70’ poles at the field next summer. Early this year, old sodium halide lighting at the Athletic Complex stadium was replaced with LED lighting that limits “glare and spillage.” Plyler says the planned softball field lights “are identical to the lights just installed.”

Plyler says because the lights are new, and as a courtesy to neighbors, SPS is going through a State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) process that includes a draft environmental checklist finished this spring. That process allows neighbors and others to comment on any concerns they have about the new lights. Plyler says while the 70’ poles are tall, the LED fixtures allow light to be focused more narrowly on the playfield than shorter poles would, reducing spillage and the number of poles required. Once the comment period ends tomorrow at 5pm, the final SEPA checklist will be completed, and barring lengthy appeals, SPS will apply for city permits and install the lighting in the next round of summer levy projects.

SEPA checklist comments can be made by email to [email protected] – and there’s more information about this on SPS’s SEPA page; scroll down to the section for Interim or Non-School Sites.

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