HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Construction on the massive Redstone Gateway office park at Interstate 565 and Rideout Road could begin next week.

On Thursday night, the Huntsville City Council hired contractors to grade the site near Redstone Arsenal's busy Gate 9, dig up an old NASA rail spur, move part of the arsenal fence and build an access road for the office park.

City Engineer Shane Davis said Plateau Excavation and Tennessee Valley Fence should get their notices to proceed Monday. Reed Contracting will start work on the access road in about 45 days.

Davis said the first of Redstone Gateway's 52 planned office buildings should begin rising from the ground in February.

LW Redstone, a development consortium led by Maryland-based Corporate Office Properties Trust, wants to create 4.6 million square feet of office space for Army employees and defense contractors - mostly on federal land just outside the Arsenal, with a few secure buildings behind the gate.

The $1 billion project also includes two hotels, multiple restaurants, an academic campus and outdoor concert venue.

Huntsville has agreed to pay for most of the necessary infrastructure using $76 million borrowed from LW Redstone. The city will repay the company, plus 9.95 percent interest, using property taxes generated by the office buildings.

Davis said the city is paying Plateau Excavation of Atlanta $3.9 million to "mass grade" 110 acres on the west side of Rideout Road for the office park's first phase. LW Redstone will pick up the $630,000 tab for the company to compact the dirt around the first office buildings, he said.

The contract also calls for Plateau to build two large stormwater detention ponds and remove a half-mile-long NASA railroad spur. It will be rebuilt closer to I-565, Davis said.

Reed Contracting of Huntsville will be paid $424,315 to build an 800-foot access road into the office park from Rideout Road near the Arsenal visitor's center. The visitor's center will eventually be torn down and a new facility built farther south on Rideout.

Tennessee Valley Fence, also from Huntsville, is making $278,036 to move a large section of Arsenal fencing west of Rideout Road about a half-mile deeper into the base.

Davis said Plateau, Reed Contracting and Tennessee Valley Fence gave the city the best price among numerous companies that bid on the infrastructure work.

In other action Thursday, the council:

* Hired Fite Building of Decatur to construct the new Madison County Veterans Memorial downtown for $1.87 million. The project is being financed entirely by private donations. Mary Jane Caylor, executive director of the nonprofit Big Spring Partners, presented the council with a $750,000 check to cover early construction costs. Another $600,000 in outstanding pledges is "coming in very regularly," Caylor said, and organizers are moving closer to their goal of selling 10,000 inscribed bricks for the memorial.