It is team-building time for companies interested in constructing a $1 billion data center for the National Security Agency at Camp Williams.Some of Utah's biggest general contractors have teamed up with national counterparts to go after the lucrative primary contract to build the 1 million-square-foot center for the nation's intelligence community. Federal guidelines mandate that small businesses represent 70 percent of the project's subcontractors. Of that, portions must be allocated to businesses owned by women, people from disadvantaged groups, veterans and disabled veterans. Within the next two weeks, all of the contractor consortia vying for the primary construction contract -- worth more than $500 million on its own -- will submit general proposals outlining their qualifications. In late March, the Corps of Engineers will pare the competition down to three to five contractor teams. Each then will have about four months to assemble a highly detailed plan about how it intends to build the facility, which revolves around 100,000 square feet of highly wired, atmosphere-controlled space where U.S. spy agencies can collect mountains of data for analysis. The Salt Lake Tribune
