Oval rehab to start mid-July

Work for the rehabilitation of the rubberized track oval of the Cebu City Sports Center (CCSC) will start by mid-July with the awarding of the contract to Sierra Universal Corp., the same company that installed the track in 1994.

CCSC manager Ricky Ballesteros said that they already have the schedule of work from Sierra Universal and that they are just waiting for the bidding for the civil works.

Ballesteros explained that the civil works, which includes the fencing, drainage, cementing, football field rehabilitation and architectural repairs and designs, are not part of Sierra Universal’s job. Thus, they are looking for another contractor to take care of those.

He said the bidding for the civil works will be on June 21. After that, Ballesteros said they will meet with Sierra and the winning bidder for the civil works to plot out their schedule of works.

Once that is done, the importation of materials will then be started, which he said will take two months.

According to Ballesteros, he would also communicate with the Philippine Sports Commission  (PSC) next week since they promised to help them by giving a tax exemption on the importation of materials.

He said that it would be better for the fencing to be started prior to the scraping off of the old oval to prevent students from the Abellana National School (ANS) from wandering into the grounds and interfering with the work.

Work will span four months including the one month curing period. Most likely, the oval will be closed starting mid-July until October.

While the oval will be closed, the rest of the facilities of the CCSC will be open to the public such as the swimming pool, among others.

Because of this, the holding of the Milo Regionals on Aug. 13 to 15 will be affected. However, Ballesteros, who is also the Milo regional tournament director, said this is not a problem. He said they plan to hold the Milo opening ceremonies at the Cebu Coliseum and the track and field competition at the Sacred Heart School-Ateneo de Cebu (SHS-AdC).

Ballesteros said that they also plan to have the opening of the new oval to coincide with the opening of a sporting event most likely the Cebu City Olympics on the first week of November.