Two new artificial turf sports fields at Battle Point Park may not open until early September, after work on the project was fouled by wet weather early this year.

Project organizers had hoped the fields could be ready for play as early as June. That was before rain showers drenched the island between February and April.

“That stopped work completely, so we didn’t get anything done in spring like we’d hoped,” Bainbridge Metropolitan Park and Recreation District Executive Director Terry Lande said.

The $1.4 million field project has been developed by the park district, in partnership with island sports clubs. The turf fields will replace to sand and crumb rubber fields, which became waterlogged in winter months.

A groundbreaking ceremony kicked off construction on the new fields February.

Work on the fields is now about 70 percent complete, Lande said. Still to come is a finish layer base rock, and a layer of finer stone, which will help cushion the turf. The artificial turf itself has already been delivered to the site.

Labor Day is being tentatively targeted for a grand opening, Lande said.

The delay is not expected to increase the cost of the fields, which were contracted out on a fixed bid, said John Sloat, president of the Bainbridge Island Youth Soccer Club, which spearheaded fundraising for the project.

Despite the delay, the good news is, the fields should be ready for the wet fall and winter sports seasons, Sloat said.

“We don’t have a field emergency in the summer like we do in the winter,” he said.