VALPARAISO | Six hundred construction jobs could be created over the next two years with the construction of the new Porter hospital main campus, Porter Health System CEO Jonathan Nalli said Thursday.

Those jobs could support a payroll between $60 million and $65 million, Nalli said.

Beyond being a replacement hospital, the new facility at the northwest corner of Ind. 49 and U.S. 6 in Liberty Township could spur the economy and help move Northwest Indiana out of the recession, he said.

Without specifying a number, Nalli said new jobs would also be created by the need to staff and maintain the larger facility set to open in the summer of 2012. The current Valparaiso building's 250,000 square feet will give way to 430,000 square feet at the new site.

A formal groundbreaking will be held July 21, Nalli said.

Outlining a timeline for work at the 104-acre site, Nalli said trees and underbrush will be cleared from the southern 64 acres over the next month. Grading and leveling will follow, with foundation pouring and steel frame construction beginning within three months.

Porter will sell the LaPorte Avenue hospital because of the expense to maintain it, but it will maintain a 25,000-square-foot emergency and diagnostic facility in the city, possibly on U.S. 30, Nalli said.

Nalli announced the awarding of contracts for the work at the new hospital.

Robins & Morton of Nashville, Tenn., will act as general contractor.

Subcontractors are Dyer Construction, of Dyer, for site work; Cives Steel, of Wolcott, Ind., for steel fabrication; Chicago Decking Erectors, of Merrillville, for steel erection; Subsurface Constructors, of St. Louis, for foundation and pier drilling and pouring; and Scurto Cement Construction of Gilberts, Ill., for the remainder of the concrete work.

Damon Run Conservancy District, which sends its sewage to Portage for treatment, won out over the town of Chesterton for the sanitary sewer service contract.

Other utility contracts went to NIPSCO for gas and electricity and to Indiana American Water for water.

Bids for further work on the facility will be sought in August and awarded in the fall. That work will start later this year or next year, depending on the weather, Nalli said.