Dartmouth’s newly improved Memorial Stadium is on track to open by the start of the fall sports season. 

Construction on the $1.7 million first phase of stadium renovations officially broke ground on May 7, although construction had already been in progress for several days before that. 

Since then, lighting and scoreboards have been replaced, and the old grass has been ripped out and the field is almost ready for the next step of construction: The installation of artificial turf. 

“We’re close to the point where we’ll be putting down the turf,” said School Business Administrator James Kiely at a July 8 School Committee meeting. “That’s the next big milestone.” 

Kiely said construction is proceeding slightly ahead of schedule, and so far there’s only one thing that isn’t quite known: When Eversource will finalize plans to bring power to the site. 

Kiely said sporting events have already been scheduled, and so far there is no reason to worry the events will not be held there. 

A separate town-led project to bring 60 new parking spots to the stadium is also in the works. 

At the Spring Town Meeting, members approved the $220,000 project to add 65 spaces in an empty field behind the stadium and Town Hall. A solar canopy will be built over it to generate electricity. 

“Hopefully in the next several weeks we should start to see movement with the parking lot,” Kiely said.