Construction on Fort Stewart’s $427 million 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team complex will be close to completion and ready for troops to occupy in mid-July, when Vanguard soldiers return from a 12-month deployment to Iraq, according to Fort Stewart officials.

Looking more like a college campus than a military installation, the self-contained brigade area will include barracks, a physical fitness facility, a headquarters building and a dining facility. The new complex for the 4th Brigade is only one construction project the Corps of Engineers currently oversees on Fort Stewart/Hunter Army Airfield.

Third Infantry Division commander Gen. Tony Cucolo recently told the Hinesville Rotary Club that once the 4th Brigade returns, 4,800 soldiers are expected to move into to the new complex, freeing up room in Fort Stewart’s "main" garrison area. Speed limits along Georgia Highways 119 and 144 were lowered in anticipation of increased traffic expected on those roads once 4th Brigade soldiers redeploy.

Amanda Pommerenck, engineer for the Corps’ Fort Stewart north-resident office, said the 20 new barracks buildings were designed to "give it that campus feel," and resemble university dormitories. Each barracks will have 72, two-person suites for soldiers, Pommerenck said. "Each suite will have two bedrooms and a shared kitchen and bath," she added.

Pommerenck explained the Corps "administers the contract(s)," for various contractors such as M.A. Mortenson Company, which is working on the combined brigade/battalion headquarters building, and Archer Western Contractors which is building the brigade barracks at an estimated cost of $94,881,908 million.

The Corps’ job is to provide quality assurance, she said.

In addition to new buildings, the corps must monitor the construction of infrastructure, such as roads, a well house, reverse osmosis plant and water tower, Pommerenck said.

"In March we’ll break ground on a soldier’s family care clinic," she said. The 48,795-square foot clinic will cost about $9,742,000. The family-practice style clinic will provide medical and dental health services to active-duty soldiers, their spouses and children, Pommerenck said.

The new headquarters building will measure a total of 147,000 square feet, according to a news release handed out by Will Abrams, chief of the technical services branch of Fort Stewart’s Directorate of Public Works. The building will allot 40,100 square feet for the brigade headquarters and 106,900 square feet to be divided among six battalions.

Other planned and ongoing construction projects on Fort Stewart include the Warrior in Transition complex, the 3rd Sustainment Brigade complex, the 15th Street Fire Station, expansion and renovation of Winn Army Community Hospital and a new, 6,800-square foot military working dog kennel.