Mooney & Pugh Contractors Inc., of Spokane, is one of three companies chosen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to share a five-year, $225-million construction contract for military projects in 14 states.


Mooney & Pugh was selected from among a large field of candidates to take part in a MATOC (Multiple Award Task Order Contract) program, says Cory Yost, a principal in the Spokane company. It recently began its first two projects under the contract, a $7.1 million flight support facility at Fairchild Air Force Base here, and a $6.8 million child-development center at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., Yost says.


Mooney & Pugh also is putting together proposals for two more projects under the $225 million contract. One is an auxiliary training facility at the survival school at Fairchild, and the other is a munitions storage facility in Kansas City, Mo., Yost says.


Although the MATOC program that Mooney & Pugh is involved in is funded at $45 million a year, its unlikely that any of the three contractors chosen to participate in it would get that much work in a year, Yost says.


Of the four projects issued so far under the MATOC program, Mooney & Pugh has been awarded two and a Boise-based contractor has been awarded two. A Seattle contractor, the third contractor chosen by the Corps to participate, hasnt yet been selected for a project under the program, he says.


Under the MATOC system, the Corps issues specifications for a project it wants built, and the contractors chosen to participate in the program make proposals to design and build the project, Yost says.


In some ways, the MATOC program that Mooney & Pugh is involved in is a test case, Yost says.


There are other MATOC contracts out, but typically theyre for smaller, maintenance-type projects. Their contract limit on any one job is maybe $500,000 with a yearly limit of maybe a million (dollars), whereas ours is $45 million a year, he says.


It took about a year to put together Mooney & Pughs proposal to become a MATOC contractor, and involved the cooperation of a dozen other Spokane companies, including Bernardo-Wills Architects PC, Taylor Engineering Inc., Coffman Engineers, and Design Source, he says.


Those companies will partner with Mooney & Pugh on every MATOC project it lands because all the projects are design-build, Yost says.


When we saw the competition we were up against, we really didnt think we had a chance, he says. We were competing against the largest firms in the country. One does a billion dollars a year in revenue. Another built the largest building in the world. And here we are, a small contractor in Spokane. But we thought, What the heck, lets give it a shot.


Mooney & Pugh discovered it had been selected when the companys fax machine spit out a military contract for a potential $45 million.


We about fell out of our chairs, Yost says.


Mooney & Pugh broke ground in late February on the two MATOC projects its involved in, he says. At Fairchild, the company is building a 56,000-square-foot structure that will house spare parts for the bases KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft. In Colorado Springs, its constructing a 31,000-square-foot child development center that can accommodate 270 infants and preschool-aged children.