32.0°

FAIRBANKS - A Doyon company has been awarded an Army contract worth more than $10 million to construct a facility to wash Fort Wainwright's Stryker vehicles.

The facility being built by Doyon-American Mechanical should be completed by September 2010.

The indoor cleaning facilities will have specialized equipment for cleaning the vehicles, which sometimes have mechanical issues when used for training during Alaska's harsh winters.

"It's a prototype facility for use in an Arctic environment," said Sharon McConnell, spokeswoman for Doyon.

McConnell said the construction project will create new jobs in the Fairbanks area but did not have a specific number.

This latest construction project is in addition to millions of dollars in building improvements that have been allocated to Interior military bases as part of the federal economic stimulus plan.

The stimulus money will be used for more than $55 million worth of projects in the Interior, and nearly $200 million has been allocated for the entire state by the Department of Defense.