Washington State University has selected Garco Construction Inc., of Spokane, to do structural steel and concrete work on its planned Veterinary Medical Research Building, on the university's Pullman campus.

Garco submitted a low bid of $5.6 million, edging out the project's general contractor and construction manager, Lydig Construction Inc., for that portion of the project, says Virgil Hanson, a project manager for WSU.

Garco will erect concrete slabs and the steel superstructure for the five-story, 130,000-square-foot building, Hanson says. He says he expects Garco will start work this week at the project site on the north side of the campus, just northeast of the year-old Biotechnology-Life Sciences Building.

Site and foundation work for the Veterinary Medical Research Building had been scheduled to be completed in late November, and the overall project is on schedule to be completed in the fall of 2012, Hanson says.

WSU also recently selected Hayden, Idaho-based Inland Waterproofing Services LLC to provide waterproofing and damp-proofing services to prevent moisture from passing through exterior surfaces to the interior of the building, Hanson says. Inland Waterproofing bid $205,000 for that portion of the project.

Last year, the university picked Lydig to be the general contractor and construction manager on the project, which has an estimated value of $96 million, including equipment and furniture. The university estimates the construction cost alone for the building at $54 million.

The Veterinary Medical Research Building will include environmentally controlled, biomedical research labs for neuroscience, heart muscle, and bioengineering research and education programs that will provide animal-health and human-health applications, WSU says.

Up to 40 faculty members and 200 graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and technicians will be moved to the building from crowded, obsolete facilities elsewhere on campus, the university says.