Track renovation is proving to be difficult

A renovation project to fix a drainage problem with the new synthetic Cushion Track at Santa Anita is taking longer than expected and won’t be completed until early next week.

“We just didn’t realize how difficult and how much time it would take,” Ron Charles, the Arcadia racetrack’s president, said Monday.

But Charles is a lot more optimistic about the end result now than he was a week ago, when he described the track’s condition as a nightmare.

“Now, for the first time, we are confident we are going to have a track that is safe and sound and will drain properly,” he said.

The Santa Anita winter meet begins Dec. 26.

The drainage problem was first discovered when a rainstorm hit Southern California just before the opening of the Oak Tree meet Sept. 26. A decision was made then to postpone fixing the problem until after the meet ended Nov. 4.

The work was to begin Dec. 3 but was delayed a day because rain on Nov. 30 meant trainers needed an extra day to work their horses. More rain last week is one reason the project has taken longer than expected, but Charles said the main reason is the complexity of the job.

Graders are being used to remove the seven-inch top layer of a sandy synthetic mixture that includes synthetic fibers, elastic fiber and granulated rubber. First, the mixture, which lays on an asphalt base and is coated with a blend of wax, was removed from the outside half of the track, and now they’re working on the inside half.

Once the mixture is out of the way, workers spray-wash the asphalt to remove sand which had worked its way into the hard porous material. The fine sand is what caused the drainage problem. Charles said technical experts and soil engineers were brought in to oversee the project, and they believe the problem will be rectified.

“But it is very tedious work,” Charles said.

Crews have been working two eight-hour shifts every day since Dec. 4 and, if Charles’ estimates are correct, won’t finish until probably next Monday or Tuesday.

The track was initially installed at a cost of close to $11 million. Charles guesses the cost of renovating the track will be close to $1 million.

Who pays that cost could be determined by litigation.

“I don’t know how all that will be resolved,” Charles said. “Our concern now is that we is have a safe track ready for the opening of our winter meet.”

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larry.stewart@latimes.com