NEW TOWN (AP) - Design work is proceeding on a $20 million health care center on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.

"We're looking at a groundbreaking next spring or early summer, with a completion of 2010," said Jim Foote, project manager for the Three Affiliated Tribes.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in September awarded a $1.5 million contract for the design phase to a Denver-based firm. Architects came to the reservation this month and are to return in December to meet with the Tribal Council when the plan is about one-third complete.

Perry Brady, the tribe's historic preservation officer, and Denby Deegan, an architect from White Shield, have been involved in planning for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara traditions and cultural arts for the facility.

The Three Affiliated Tribes were promised a new clinic decades ago in return for land lost to the Garrison Dam, said Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

Six years ago, $20 million in federal money was authorized for the project but never appropriated. Dorgan's office said $3 million has been secured for the architectural and engineering portion of the project, and the remaining $17 million is in an appropriations bill that will be taken up when Congress convenes early next year.

The new health facility is to be built on 120 acres of tribal land north of Fort Berthold Community College in New Town. It will replace the existing Minne-Tohe Health Center west of New Town, which has been the main medical facility since the 1960s.

Foote said the tribe is working on a partnership with the college that would include training staff for the new facility.

The new health care center will be six times larger than the existing one and will have about three times the staff.

The name of the new center - Elbowoods Memorial Health Facility - is from the community of Elbowoods, which had a hospital with the same name. Elbowoods was flooded when Garrison Dam was built.

"This is being named to commemorate the hospital we lost," Foote said.