Watts Constructors LLC of Honolulu has been awarded a $32.7 million contract to build a new Arizona Memorial visitors center, the Navy announced yesterday.

Work is expected to begin by the end of the year. The project should be completed by September 2010, the Navy said.

The Watts contract represents the construction portion of the visitors center replacement. It includes the construction of new buildings to support exhibits, education, security, offices, restrooms and resting areas.

Overall, the project is expected to total $54 million with planning, architectural design and engineering, exhibit design and fabrication and other costs factored in, officials said.

Renovation of the existing theater and demolition of the existing facility will follow after most of the new buildings are done.

The project is expected to bring some relief to the memorial, where more than 1.3 million people show up annually at a facility that was designed for 750,000.

A new campuslike design will spread new buildings and shaded walkways over a much larger area of the Arizona Memorial's 17.4 acres of shoreline than the current facility.

Only the theaters from the existing facility, built in 1980, will remain.

With the new facility, the park service will increase the visitor center and museum's 16,000 square feet to 23,000 square feet.

Museum exhibit space will more than double for display of never-before-seen artifacts, including a 1.1-inch antiaircraft gun that came off the sunken USS Utah, and a 5-by-9-foot riveted chunk of the USS Arizona's superstructure, officials said.

"We are pleased to work with the Navy to bring about much-needed changes to the shore-side visitor center," said Frank Hays, acting superintendent, USS Arizona Memorial, National Park Service. "It will enable us to provide an even better experience for our visitors by creating more exhibit and educational space, and a newly refurbished theater."

Congress directed $20 million through the Navy toward the project's overall cost, officials said.

The Navy, which will oversee the construction contract, said approximately 187 piles need to be driven into the ground to act as a foundation for the buildings and prevent the sinkage that plagued the existing facility.

Seven competing proposals were received for the contract, the Defense Department said. According to officials, the Watts contract came in about $2 million higher than anticipated.