Headquarters of the US National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md.

The US federal agency that does much of the government's engineering and construction work has shrunk the list of parties that placed bids on the $1.7 billion contract to build a new data center for the National Security Agency in Utah from more than 12 to five, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Each bidder consists of a group of companies.

The finalists that made the short list are:

- Whiting-Turner of Baltimore, Md., and Dynamic Systems of Austin, Texas

- Turner Construction of New York, N.Y., Kiewit Building Group of Omaha, Neb., and Jacobsen Construction of Salt Lake City, Utah

- Skansa USA Building of Parsipanny, N.J., and Oakland Construction of Salt Lake City

- Balfour Beatty Construction of Dallas, Texas, DPR Construction of Redwood City, Calif., and Big-D Construction of Salt Lake City

- Hensel Phelps Construction, of Greeley, Colo., and other partners

The future facility in Camp Williams will measure about one million square feet, most of which will be data center floor.

Its total power capacity will be 65MW at full build-out (30 MW will be available after completion of the first phase), which the NSA expects to be completed by March 2013.

According to AP, the agency will operate the facility for several intelligence agencies.

Its primary mission will be "cyberwarfare."