Construction will begin in July on a $10 million laboratory-and-office building at the U.S. Navys acoustic-research detachment in Bayview, Idaho.


WPC Inc., of Gig Harbor, Wash., is the primary contractor for the design-build project, says Cmdr. David Pierce, spokesman for the Naval Warfare Surface Centers Bayview detachment, on Lake Pend Oreille. The Navy tests large model submarines in Lake Pend Oreille in an effort to make its submarine fleet quieter. Near-silent operation is essential for the undersea vessels during wartime as they try to avoid detection.


The biggest portion of the Bayview project is a 27,000-square-foot acoustic testing and analysis center, which will house a large laboratory, offices, and space for industrial activities, such as fabrication, welding, and boat repair, he says.


Currently, those activities are scattered around the Navys Bayview installation in a hodgepodge of modified World War II facilities and converted 1970s-vintage government housing, Pierce says.


Besides consolidating those operations, the new building should result in lower maintenance and utility costs, he says.


Although dignitaries broke ground on the project in April, when the Navy celebrated the opening of a $9 million model-submarine garage there, actual construction of the laboratory-and-office building wont get under way until July, when demolition of the old structures will begin, Pierce says. The acoustic testing lab building is due to be completed in August 2001, while the entire project should be finished by January 2002, he says.


The project also includes parking improvements, reconfiguring traffic flow, and some landscaping, Pierce says. The work that will be done on traffic flow and landscaping will completely change the main gate of the Navys Bayview installation, Pierce adds. Itll have a different location and a different appearance.


Although the entire project is called the Underwater Equipment Laboratory, Pierce says thats misleading: Theres just no underwater equipment involved with it. Its largely a laboratory.


The project is the final part of the Navys master plan for upgrading its Bayview installation, Pierce says.