Bouten Construction Co., of Spokane, has started work on the $9.5 million first phase of the Washington State Veterans Cemetery-Medical Lake, says Richard Cesler, the cemetery's director.

The cemetery, which is slated to open next Memorial Day, is being developed on 80 acres near the intersection of Ritchie and Espanola roads near Medical Lake.

The first of nine development phases will have 2,000 inground, concrete burial vaults that will hold up to two caskets each; 2,080 above-ground columbarium niches that will hold up to two cremains each; and 4,000 inground cremation vaults that also will hold up to two cremains each, says Cesler. A columbarium is a structure of vaults lined with recessions for urns. Cremains are the ashes of a cremated human body.

The first phase also will have 1,280 individual gravesites, and a scattering garden to provide an option for dispersing cremains, says Brian Sayler, Bouten's construction manager on the project.

Sayler says Bouten will build three structures at the site in the first phase. The largest will be a 4,000-square-foot administration building, he says, adding that the other structures will include a committal shelter for final services and a maintenance building.

In all, 25 acres will be developed to some degree in the first phase, he says.

A boulevard, tentatively named the Avenue of Flags, will bisect the central burial area in a north-south direction, Sayler says.

The cemetery will open with eight full-time employees, Cesler says. He estimates that 600 to 700 veterans or spouses will be interred at the cemetery in its first year.

Future construction phases will include expansions of the columbarium walls and additional in-ground vaults and infrastructure, Cesler says. The timeline for future phases will depend on the demand for space in the cemetery, he says.

At its planned capacity, more than 100,000 people in all will be interred at the cemetery, Cesler says.

More than 146,000 veterans reside in Eastern Washington, and another 33,000 veterans live in North Idaho. Any U.S. veteran and spouse is eligible to be buried in the cemetery, he says.

"There are no residential requirements to be buried in state veterans cemeteries," Cesler says.

The cemetery is funded almost entirely through federal funds, including an $8.8 million grant that the Washington state Department of Veterans Affairs received earlier this month.

JGM Landscape Architects Inc., of Bellevue, Wash., designed the project. Taylor Engineering Inc., of Spokane, is the civil engineer.