On May 5, the City Council approved a $12.9 million bid for the installation of synthetic turf on 12 fields at the Overland Park Soccer Complex.

McAnany Construction Company in Shawnee was selected for the job.

Overland Park budgeted $14.6 million for the turf.

Nearly 1.2 million square feet of synthetic turf will be installed on the fields, enough to cover the average front yard of about 460 homes in Overland Park.

This is one of the largest installations of synthetic turf on a soccer complex at one location in the country.

Construction on the complex began in November and soil grading work is continuing today.

Installation of the turf will be done in three phases beginning in June:

• Fields 1, 2 and 3 will be in the first phase;
• Fields 9, 10, 11 and 12 in phase two, which begins in September; and
• Fields 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 in phase three that begins in October.

The field installation should be completed by Aug. 1, 2009, and the facility is expected to be operational by Sept. 1, 2009.