Progress was evident early last week on the all-weather track being installed at the Riverbank High School stadium.

Workmen were applying adhesive and top coat material at the far corner of the track on the northeast end, having completed the back stretch, in front of the visitor’s stands.

At the opposite end, near the ticket office, dozens of containers of adhesive were waiting to be placed, one by one, in a stack so the glue could be pumped into smaller bins to be carted out to where the work was being done. Large bags of the surface material were placed strategically around the track for use as they were needed.

School officials are expecting both the track and the field to be completed soon enough for the start of football. The Riverbank Raiders youth football team has its first home game scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 22 while the Bruin high school football team will suit up for its first home contest on Friday, Sept. 4.

Both sidelines of the field show the triple jump and long jump pits nearly complete, as well as the surfaces beyond the end zones, where the high jump and pole vault pits are to be placed.

With the reduced grass areas on the field, limited now to just the area of the football playing surface, school officials are expecting to save up to a third of the water necessary to keep the field green, an added bonus in light of the state’s ongoing drought situation.