The Department of Defense announced Thursday that a $12 million contract has been awarded to a Mississippi construction firm for the long-planned Moon Township military commissary. 

Carothers Construction Inc. of Oxford, MS will construct the 43,000 square-foot commissary at the corner of the Interstate 376 business route and University Boulevard near the 99th Regional Readiness Command Army Reserve Unit. When completed, it will replace the existing commissary in Oakdale. 

The commissary will act as a grocery store and trading post exclusively for more than 160,000 military personnel and family members in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. 

The post is expected to be completed by October 2013. Ten firms bid on the project, according to the Defense Department statement. 

No groundbreaking date for the building was immediately available. Officials have said work was set to begin on the project this summer. 

The effort to bring the new commissary to Moon has been more than seven years in the making: In 2005, the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission targeted the Oakdale commissary for closure.