Bridget Doyle/TribLocal reporter

At a special board meeting Thursday night, project architects and engineers presented a new timeline for installation of Hinsdale South’s stadium turf field that will result in a new completion date of Oct. 5 — just three days before the school’s Oct. 8 homecoming game versus Downers Grove South.

District officials attributed the delay to bad weather.

“This is has been the third-heaviest rainfall our area has ever seen in the month of July — the heaviest recorded since 1958,” said Hinsdale Township High School District 86 Superintendent Nick Wahl. “The weather coupled with the construction strike created unforeseeable conditions we couldn’t control.”

To remedy the still-too-wet field at Hinsdale South, District officials approved a change order for lime remediation, which will cost $57,700.

Although the field was last projected to be completed by the Sept. 17 home game versus Leydon High School, the new date provides a special incentive — having the field ready for Hinsdale South’s homecoming weekend.

“If things cooperate with mother nature, the field will be completed for (Hinsdale) South’s homecoming,” Wahl said.

Wahl said the soil engineers would bring in lime to add to the moist soil in order to make it more compact so the project can move forward.

The added cost, Wahl said, is still within the turf field’s projected $4 million budget in bond proceeds. The original bid for the project was about $3.89 million, so the district still had $106,000 left to complete the project. The $57,000 change order will come from these remaining funds, Wahl said.

Hinsdale South will continue to play its home games at Hinsdale Central until the project is completed. As for now, Wahl said South and Central’s home schedules do not conflict.

For Hinsdale South’s 2010 football schedule, click here

bdoyle@tribune.com