The Hangar 4 site at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center campus is getting a new mission as the location of the center’s new $51 million headquarters.

“At ERDC, innovation is our livelihood,” ERDC Director Dr. Jeff Holland said Tuesday at a groundbreaking ceremony for the new building. “Our people provide innovative solutions for a better world every single day. This ceremony is not a celebration of a new building. The ceremony is a celebration of the people who have earned this building through dedicated professionalism, selfless service and a commitment to excellence.”

Hangar 4, a facility where technicians and engineers tested surfaces and paving compounds used in building airport runways, at one time was a part of that process of innovation. Its duties were shifted to another building on the campus.

“The facility that we have now is a 1960ish facility,” Holland said. “Currently, our staff offices are all over the countryside on this campus and they always have been. This will give us the first opportunity to bring all of those folks together in one facility.

“Our new building will be in such a position (at the campus’ center) so that it actually ties our campus together for the first time. We’ve been trying to work hard for a master plan concept for a number of years. We’ve begun a good trek on that.”

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., called the new headquarters building an investment for the future, adding Vicksburg and Warren County has the largest single Federal investment of any city and county in the state’s 2nd Congressional District, which he represents.

“ERDC has a tremendous reputation all over the country,” Thompson told Holland. “Your reputation is that some of the smartest people anywhere in this country are here and that’s a compliment you and your leadership team in assembling that group of people.”

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said the building’s impact will affect not only ERDC’s campus, but the city’s future economic growth.

“ERDC has an annual research program exceeding $2 billion and it has over $1.2 billion in unique research facilities,” he said. “The main headquarters will undoubtedly enhance those services and we are fortunate to have one of the leading engineering and research organizations in the world located right here in the city of Vicksburg.”

Thompson called ERDC’s $2 billion budget “investment that the government puts in here on various projects that is significant. Those people live here in Vicksburg and Warren County, and the work they do here is felt all over the world.”

As the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, he said “part of our job is to detect bad people — potential terrorists— who try to enter the country illegally. Much of what they do here helps us do that.”

The project is being built by Philadelphia-based Yates Constructions Co., which has 28 months to complete the contract. Holland said the Corps’ Mobile District is acting as the project’s contracting agent and construction agent to handle quality assurance inspection during the project.

When completed, the 142,000 square-foot building will include a four-story southern wing and a three-story northern wing, connected by a centrally located 6,100 square-foot atrium. It will include 4,500 square feet of classroom space, a 500-seat auditorium, a 100-seat conference room, a 50-seat video/teleconferencing room, and a 6,350-square-foot archival library. It will house ERDC’s major command staff division and executive offices under the same roof for the first time in the organization’s history.

Besides the executive offices, the building will house the offices of health services, safety, security, equal employment opportunity, contracting, internal review, the director of public works, public affairs and resource management, and the office of counsel.