The Pine Banks Foundation has awarded the bid for the new athletics facilities at Melrose's Pine Banks Park to Quirk Construction, whose bid of $1,690,00 came in more than $200,000 less than the initial estimate for the project, according to a press release from Melrose Mayor Rob Dolan's office.

Melrose is paying $1 million in project costs, on top of a $1 million contribution from Malden's city coffers. The rest of the funding comes from a $500,000 state grant awarded last October and $250,000 from the Baird Foundation.

The total cost of the project is $2.75 million, which is $750,000 less than initially forecast.

“The bids were excellent, and they came in under our estimates,” Dolan said in the press release. "This is an important step forward for Melrose and Malden. We are building badly needed playing fields, and giving Melrose a regulation-size running track for the first time ever, and we are doing it all without spending a dime of taxpayer money.”

The project has fallen a bit behind schedule. Construction was originally slated to begin in June this year and be completed by June 2012. Now, the softball complex is scheduled to be completed by spring 2012 and the rest of the project the following autumn.

A regulation track would be built at the corner of Main and Sylvan Streets, over the area currently taken up by two small baseball diamonds, and in the middle of the track would be a regulation synthetic turf field for track events, soccer, lacrosse, T-ball and other sports.

A new softball complex with lighting would be built at the far east side of the park and more than 100 new parking spaces adjacent to that field. That lot would be accessible from Sylvan Street and from the smaller Main Street parking lot, via a driveway.