Architect Agrees to Fix Titan Track : Athletics: Cal State Fullerton officials also say they will pay to correct drainage problems on baseball and softball fields.

Cal State Fullerton has reached an agreement with the architect responsible for the faulty design of its track, and school officials say they also have come up with additional money to fix drainage problems with the baseball and softball fields at the Titan Sports Complex.

The Irvine-based architectural firm of Grillias, Pirc, Rosier and Alves, which designed the track to incorrect specifications, has agreed to pay $49,900 toward the cost of fixing the track, Sal Rinella, Fullerton’s vice president for administration, said Thursday.

Rinella said the track and the drainage problems will be fixed by Feb. 1, in time for the spring sports seasons.

This means:

-- The Titan men’s and women’s track teams will be able to play host to meets for the first time since the complex was finished 1 1/2 years ago. All meets last spring were at away sites because the track mistakenly was built 440 yards instead of the requested 400 meters and then striped like a 400-meter track. -- The baseball field will drain water it collects so the team will not have to flee to Florida this winter in search of dry fields, as was the case last February.

-- The baseball field will be graded properly so, when it rains, water doesn’t run down the hills toward the softball diamond, creating a swamp down the left-field line over which softball players have to lay two-by-fours so they can walk to their dugout.

Fullerton officials have estimated it will take about $150,000 to correct all the problems. The rest of the funds, Rinella said, will come from two sources, generated mostly from interest, leftover in the original construction account (roughly $60,000) and accumulated from maintenance and repair fees charged to users, including Titan athletic teams and outside renters (approximately $40,000).

Rinella said the project already has been sent out to bid and that construction firms have been chosen.

“We are launched and ready to proceed,” he said. “I’m relieved to have a plan of action for taking care of three long-standing problems that have affected three areas--our intercollegiate athletics, our academics and the recreational use of these areas.”

Jay Bond, Fullerton’s associate vice president in charge of building on campus, said he hopes the projects are completed well before the target date of Feb. 1.

“We should be able to beat that significantly,” Bond said. “That’s a drop-dead date.”

Negotiations have been ongoing for months with Grillias, Pirc, Rosier and Alves, which the school says apparently drew the blueprints for the track from those of UC Irvine, which has a 440-yard track.

Fullerton officials are still not sure whether the architect should shoulder some of the financial responsibility for the the drainage problems, and sources say talks between the two parties continue. But with the school year underway, university officials decided they could not wait any longer to correct the problems.

“All I want to say at this point is that the matter of discussions with the architect on the drainage problems has not been completely brought to closure,” Rinella said.

Officials from Grillias, Pirc, Rosier and Alves could not be reached for comment.