Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, has won a $29.4 million design-build contract for a new U.S. Army Reserve center at Fairchild Air Force Base, says company President James T. Tim Welsh.


The project will include six buildings, five of which will be pre-engineered, steel structures fabricated by West-Plains-based Garco Building Systems. The main reserve training center will be a separately designed, 75,600-square-foot structure, says project architect Robert Wills, a principal at Bernardo Wills Architects PC, of Spokane, and will be used for full-time staff offices and for reserve units training each weekend.


The project also will include a 34,000-square-foot modified L-shaped building that will house additional training space and a number of vehicle maintenance bays, one heated and one unheated storage building, a hazardous or flammable waste building, and a maintenance training bay. The military may also opt to add a large covered outdoor parking lot for vehicle storage later, Wills says. The complex, which will be more than 208,000 square feet in total floor space, does not include barracks for reservists, he says.


The new complex will be located on the east side of Fairchild, near the commercial entrance gate on Rambo Road on the West Plains.


The complex will house the Army Reserve Center as well as the Air National Guard. It will replace the Mann Hall Army Reserve Center in Hillyard and the Walker Army Reserve Center in Spokane Valley, both of which the military plans to close.


According to the Army Reserve public affairs office, the Walker center houses several Army Reserve companies, including the 3rd battalion, 4th and 5th brigade, and the 659th engineer company, along with Air National Guard units. Mann Hall is occupied by Army maintenance unit number 80, team 17 legal support, the 981st medical detachment, the 396th company A support hospital company, and the 643rd transportation detachment. Three additional concrete and asphalt detachments will be added to the 659th engineer company.


Community groups are currently discussing possible future uses for the two facilities, which were identified for closure through the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Process.


The design team for the project at Fairchild includes the Spokane office of Seattle-based Coffman Engineers Inc., for structural and mechanical design; Bernardo Wills Architects PC for architecture; and the Spokane office of Portland-based David Evans & Associates Inc. for civil engineering design, Welsh says.


Garco Construction expects to put 42,000 Garco man-hours into the project, not including the work of major subcontractors, Welsh says. Those subcontractors will include MTM Contractors, of Spokane; Nemitz Sheet Metal Inc., of Spokane Valley; Peterson Electric Inc., of Spokane; and Modern Dry Wall, Inc. of Spokane. Additional subcontractors will be identified as the project proceeds, Welsh says.


The project is administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but Fairchild representatives will provide design input as well, he says. Garco expects to break ground on the project by Oct. 1, he says.


Contact Jeanne Gustafson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at jeanneg@spokanejournal.com.