KAHALU'U — Kahalu'u Regional Park has sat unused for three years despite spanking new football and baseball fields complete with parking and comfort station.

A series of planned park openings dating to 2003 have come and gone due to problems with soil and irrigation. Fixing those problems has added an estimated $1.8 million to the park's cost, bringing its overall cost to $5.3 million, according to city officials.

But come July, five years after it was supposed to be completed — and three decades after it was first talked about — city officials say work on the park will be finished.

Once the city parks department approves the completed work, kids will finally get to use those football and baseball fields.

"When the day comes, when it's dedicated and we got kids on the field, then it will all be worth the garbage that we have gone through for the past 20 something years," said Nick Cambra, whose family has waited three generations to use the park.

"My grandson signed up for football this year," he said. "I'm pretty sure that he'll get a chance to play on it because he's 8 and he's got seven more years (in Pop Warner Football) to go."

Cambra, who has been involved with Pop Warner Football for 25 years, said he expected to play on new fields there as a youth. Then he worked as an adult to get a park so his son could play there. Now with an expected opening this summer, he will watch his grandson on the new football field.

Progress on the park faced many hurdles, including waiting for the right city administration to build it and unexpected soil and drainage problems that have delayed its opening.

The park includes baseball, football and soccer playing fields, a parking lot, a comfort station and walking trail.

"The work is pretty much done," said Russell Takara, deputy director for the city Department of Design & Construction. "We're still working on the irrigation system."

Work on the park began in 2000 and the fields were expected to be finished in early 2003, but rocks the size of golf balls kept surfacing in the field, delaying its completion.

Nevertheless the city moved forward with work on the comfort station and parking lot. And while the park seemed to be finished by early 2005, the grass was not growing and the city pushed back the opening date to summer of that year to try alternative solutions.

The problem was caused by poor drainage because the clay soil wouldn't drain and rocks continued to surface, making the fields unplayable. In January 2006 city officials said it would take six more months to fix those problems. That year it obtained $1.4 million to fix the drainage problem and resurface the fields.

Two years later, irrigation seems to be the last hurdle.

Wil Ho, Windward parks superintendent, said the first delay was caused by poor workmanship and the city Department of Parks and Recreation refused to accept the contractor's work. The fields were redesigned but water still ponded on the field and the grass wouldn't grow, Ho said. Clay soil contributed to the problem, he said.

In this last phase of the project, the contractor was to dig out the old clay soil and replace it with several inches of top soil. The parks department will take a careful look at the project before accepting it, he said.

"I want to know what's ticking down below," Ho said. "And (find out) is the irrigation system working because without that in a short time we'll probably have brown spots."

Little League players and coaches are looking forward to the new field. Now the players in the 13-and-above teams can only play on high-school size fields and there is only one field at Kane'ohe District Park they can use, said Glen Kiyabu, president of the Kahaluu Little League that takes players from Kahalu'u to Kahuku.

The league shares the Kane'ohe field and can only use it three times a week, but with three teams of that age it means they only get to practice once a week on the right size field, Kiyabu said. The players do practice on smaller fields but they can't practice hitting on those fields, he said.

Kiyabu said the long wait for the park and the numerous delays have made him cautious about celebrating the opening of the park too soon. He was told that he might be able to use the new facility this year, but he said he isn't counting on it till next season.

"Once it's finished and once it's open, it will be terrific," he said. "Not only for our league but for the other sport leagues that are from the Kahalu'u area like soccer and football and even for everyday recreation."