Beginning in January, the track will be completely redone, giving runners an even surface to train on.

Construction workers are working to replace the 11 year-old track so that athletes will have a brand new surface to practice on when track season starts in the spring.

Voters approved a bond issue in Spring 2013, enabling Austin ISD to pay for repairs and resurfacing of the tracks at five middle schools and three high schools, including Akins, Travis and Bowie. The repairs at all the schools total more than $2 million.

Akins will receive about $500,000 worth of improvements to the track, which is nearly a quarter of the track repairs. Akins is receiving more than some other schools because the surface was in worse shape than those at the other schools, said Marc Brewster, project manager for the track repairs.

He said that the “old track surface had failed through age,” which caused athletes many problems.

“The material on the top of the track was flaky and coming off in chunks and that became a safety hazard,” Brewster said.

Senior track athlete Miranda LeBlanc agreed the track was in bad shape.

“There was a bunch of holes in the track,” she said. “The paint had completely faded away.”

Just running on the old track, compared to other schools, brought several of the athletes sore feet, and hurt ankles because the asphalt doesn’t have any spring as other surfaces do.

These, along with many other issues because of age, have made practice difficult for the track team, said head track coach Joseph Saxe.

Issues with the track were needing to be fixed for several years, he said, adding that this new track would be able to fix that.

“The new track at Akins will help give the kids a sense of pride, and also help prevent a lot of injuries because the old track had noticeable wear and tear and had a lot of holes in it,” Saxe said.

The new track will be made up of a salt polymer, which is easier to run on than the old asphalt.

“We are adding starting blocks, and making a better running surface for the athletes,” Brewster said.

Because of all the improvements happening, this project is expected to take until the end of winter break. Because bad weather

happens frequently during the winter, weather, delays could push back the completion date, Brewster said.

Since track season starts just after winter break, the athletes may need another place to run if delays occur.