The Illawarra’s first synthetic football pitch is one step closer to getting off the ground, with Wollongong City Council looking for a company to design and build the long-awaited project.
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After years of planning and increasing costs, the council is calling for tenders for the big-budget makeover of Ian McLennan Park, in Kembla Grange.
The project will include construction of a International Federation standard synthetic football playing surface on one of the fields, as well as remedial works on the natural turf surface, drainage works and the installation of new footpaths and fencing.
The successful contractor will also need to install sports playing equipment like goalposts, flags and coaches boxes, competition standard lighting, electrical upgrades and security fencing.
Tender documents show the council is seeking a highly-specialised contractor to build a facility that has a lifespan of at least 20 years.
The councils says the successful company will need to be a manufacturer, and licencee of FIFA, and will need to have installed at least one synthetic pitch up to the international standard which has been certified in the past three years.
Late in the last term of council, councillors raised concerns about the rising costs of installing the synthetic pitch football ground, which has been estimated at more than $2 million.
The council has already spent about $190,000 in preliminary studies, according to Lord Mayor Gordon Bradbery, which revealed difficulties of installing a synthetic pitch at Kembla Grange.
The council will provide up to $1.4 million, while the NSW Government – through its Clubgrants program – will provide $500,000.
Tenders close at 10am on November 16.