Because of the first showers of the season, which rolled through the Bay Area at the end of October, contractors have had to delay once more in putting the finishing touches on the rebuilt track, said Al Oxonian, Campbell senior civil engineer in charge of the project.

"The rain pushed us back another two or three days," he said.

Workers are putting in a new all-weather sport track to replace an old, sandy one that often became flooded in heavy rains. The football field was also re-sodded and irrigation was improved to address drainage problems there, as well.

They finished laying down the track's mat on Nov. 4, and if the weather permits, they expect to have applied the final, red surface coating by Nov. 7, Oxonian said. But if it rains again, the track's completion will be delayed an additional week.

Despite the showers, however, runners itching to burn a little rubber on the new track can look forward to Dec. 1 as the scheduled reopening date for the track and field.

"We built some lead time into the schedule for these kinds of things," Oxonian said.

These rains were only the latest source of weather snags for the project.

Originally scheduled to reopen in September, the track and field project was delayed three months by unusually heavy showers in December of last year, he said.

Underground clay, which doesn't allow the water to be absorbed into the ground very easily, was to blame, said Campbell Community Center Manager Linda Klemczak.

"It was really frustrating, too," she said. "Even though January was pretty dry, workers couldn't use heavy equipment because they didn't want them to be slipping and sliding all over the place."

The community center renovation was approved in September 2002, with a total budget of $7.2 million. The city awarded Novato-based Arntz Builders the $5.3 million construction contract, with an additional 15 percent contingency allocated to the project.

Although the project was delayed, the total project is still within the original $7.2 million budget, said Campbell City Engineer Michelle Quinney.

When complete, facilities will include not only the new track and improved football field, but also new night-lit tennis courts, ball walls, more walkways, a reconfigured skate park, new restrooms and a completely reconfigured parking lot.

The Campbell Avenue parking lot, which now includes landscaped medians, was the first major portion of the multistage project to be completed. It reopened in the spring.

The reopening of the track and field will mark the completion of the second major stage of the renovation.

The latest delays haven't had much of an effect on the fall football and soccer seasons, Klemczak said. Because the original date for the completion was supposed to be in September, the facilities wouldn't have been ready for the fall league play.

"But the stadium field will be available for the spring soccer season," she said. "And the kids are going be in hog heaven."

After the track's reopening, the next item scheduled for completion is the skate park, which was moved closer to the football field. The former skate park was parallel to Campbell Avenue and located inside the fencing of the old tennis courts, which have been torn down.

Previously, kids needed to skate across the parking lot to use the restroom, Klemczak said.

"That was dangerous because the lot is often full of cars going through it," she said. "The new restroom will make it safer for the kids and less worrisome for the drivers."

The skate park is scheduled to reopen in late December or early January.

On Dec. 1 at 4 p.m. citizens are invited to a ribbon cutting ceremony followed by an inaugural lap on the new track with Campbell Mayor Dan Furtado.