Baseball Season Ends with a Beginning for Cheney Stadium

As Rainier fans are getting ready to put their jerseys and pennants away for next year, City employees are just breaking out their shovels. 

The baseball season may be coming to a close, but thanks to Phase II of the Cheney Stadium Sustainable Stormwater Project next year’s fans with have more than a new season to look forward to. Over the fall, this project will install more porous asphalt in the parking lot, a large rain garden (called a bioretention facility), pervious concrete sidewalks that will make getting to the game from Scott Pierson Trail and Tyler Street easier and 2.5 acres of landscaping with 263 shade trees.

The result will be a stadium with a parking lot that filters 10 acres of water on-site so that polluted rainwater doesn’t make it downstream to fish and wildlife. The project uses plants, trees and permeable soils to slow down and absorb water running off the stadium’s parking lot, which may be dirtied by vehicles with unfixed oil leaks or other dripping fluids. It’s a model that could be used in many commercial developments. 

Stan Palmer Construction has been awarded the $1.5 million project, which includes up to $1 million in grant funds from the Washington State Department of Ecology with matching City and Stadium funding.  

The groundbreaking will take place before the game starts on the Rainiers’ closing day of Monday, Sept. 2, 2013. City of Tacoma Councilmember Mello and Environmental Services officials will hand the golden shovel over to Stan Palmer Construction representatives, Rainier representatives and Rhubarb, the team mascot.

Rain falling at Cheney Stadium travels 10 miles along stream banks before flowing into Chamber Bay.

“Putting natural process to work like this can be a smart and efficient use of resources,” said Councilmember Ryan Mello. “Puget Sound and the land around Tacoma’s lakes, rivers and streams are tremendous economic and quality of life assets that deserve our protection.” 

The City of Tacoma’s innovative surface water efforts, such as this Environmental Services Department project, have made Tacoma a regional leader in green infrastructure. Phase I of the project achieved Silver Greenroads Certification® helping make Tacoma home to the highest concentration of Greenroads-certified projects in the nation. Completion of Phase I, in 2012, has garnered state-wide attention through university student and professional organization tours.