The Newport News construction firm W.M. Jordan Co. will build a $95.6 million laboratory at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton.

The U.S. General Services Administration announced the awarding of the contract to W.M. Jordan on Thursday afternoon. The Measurement Systems Laboratory is scheduled for completion in 2019.

John R. Lawson II, president and CEO of W.M. Jordan, said he took pride in landing the contract, as his firm was the only bidder based in Virginia.

"What's nice is that a lot of local people will be getting the work," he said. "We might have 250 people present at peak time on the site, but so many products will be made locally at manufacturing plants that the number will probably be 10 times that with all of the associated work. When the money stays local, it gets spent four or five times over."

In a news release, NASA Langley described the 175,000-square-foot laboratory as "a world-class facility for research and development of new measurement concepts, technologies and systems."

The new facility, which will allow the consolidation of many existing labs currently spread out across the Langley grounds, is the biggest of the new facilities in NASA Langley's 20-year revitalization plan. The plan involves the demolition or rehabilitation of aging structures with a focus on upgrading to more energy-efficient facilities.

In the news release, NASA Langley director Dave Bowles said: "This is going to advance and ensure the capabilities the agency must have for mission success, as well as pave the way for Langley's future as we enter our 100th year. It will also boost the regional economy by providing several hundred construction-related jobs for the next few years."

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NASA Langley spokesman Michael Finneran said the new lab "will help us in the three main areas we work in — aeronautics, earth science and space exploration."

Lawson said the new laboratory will feature five "cleanrooms," for delicate research requiring air so pure that occupants must wear special airtight suits.

"All of our projects are interesting, and they're all different," Lawson said. "With a lab of this type, there will be a lot of very sophisticated and sensitive instrumentation. It will be a concrete frame building, because you can't have vibrations with this instrument testing. It has to be really strong and solid, and it will be chockablock full of technology, like any lab but even more so with this particular one."

Holtzclaw can be reached by phone at 757-928-6479.