Aberdeen, Md. (Map, News) - With a $477.5 million contract in hand, construction will soon begin at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Washington-based firms Tompkins-Turner and Grunley/Kinsley were awarded the joint contract to design and build the new facilities for the Army’s Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance headquarters, which is relocating from Fort Monmouth, N.J., as part of the federal Base Realignment and Closure process, Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Khaalid Walls said.

Nine buildings totaling about 1 million square feet of offices, laboratories, training facilities and data centers will be built on the base’s northern peninsula, said Leif Hendrickson, executive director of business development for Tompkins-Turner.

“We’ll go through finishing the design and all the preconstruction, but we won’t start actually digging until after the first of the year,” Hendrickson said.

Another contract will soon be awarded for the first phase of infrastructure upgrades on the base, which will improve roads, intersections and entrance gates along with some of the power lines, APG garrison commander Col. Jeffrey Weissman said.

“The challenging piece of it will be synchronizing all our upgrade efforts together,” he said. “You don’t want to tear up the same roads more than one time.”

Maryland’s congressmen and senators boasted that the contract showed the Army’s commitment to pushing the BRAC changes forward.

Legislators from New Jersey have sought in recent months to halt the transfers and review the costs of closing Fort Monmouth and moving its workers to Aberdeen, which has more than doubled over original estimates.

“This contract takes us a concrete step forward in our successful implementation of the BRAC Commission’s decision. The recommendations were based on mission, merit and what is best for the nation as a whole,” Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., said in a statement.

BRAC IMPACT

New jobs (on- and off-base): 27,620

New households: 16,682

New population: 45,042

New public school students: 10,927

Source: Sage Policy Group study, 2007

msantoni@baltimoreexaminer.com