Kansas firm wins contract for Wichita State's Innovation Campus construction (+video)

Crossland Construction has been awarded a contract for the second phase of Wichita State University’s Innovation Campus project, according to a news release Monday.

The release says the Kansas company was the lowest of three bidders for the second and largest phase of the project, winning with a bid of $6.1 million. The bid was selected through a process conducted by the Kansas Department of Administration.

The first phase of the Innovation Campus – which is being designed on the WSU campus to foster entrepreneurship and mesh students with private industry through partnerships with companies such as Airbus and Dassault Systemes – is underway, with completion scheduled for sometime in March.

Dondlinger Construction and Wildcat Construction also placed bids for the second phase of the project. The first part of the construction project mostly has to do with installation of sewer and water lines, according to the release, while the next phase will essentially complete the needed infrastructure for the project.

“It’s exciting to see the pieces of Innovation Campus coming together,” WSU president John Bardo said in the release. “Our intention is that this 120-acre space becomes a stimulus for applied learning, a nurturing home for inventors and entrepreneurs, and an accelerator for economic growth for the people of Kansas.

“Innovation Campus construction itself is an important economic catalyst for Kansas, employing hundreds in the construction, engineering and design of the campus.”

Construction on the second phase, expected to begin by early April, will include building two new streets, sidewalks and a pedestrian mall as well as installing landscaping and fiber optic cabling, according to the release. Work is expected to begin by early April and is scheduled to be completed this fall.

The infrastructure is being financed through a 2015 Sedgwick County Public Building Commission $45 million bond issue. The WSU Office of Facilities Planning and MKEC Engineering developed the infrastructure plans for Innovation Campus.

Crossland is headquartered in Columbus, Kan., with offices in Wichita, Denver, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Arkansas and Texas.

This story was originally published February 15, 2016 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Kansas firm wins contract for Wichita State's Innovation Campus construction (+video)."