HARRISBURG -- It's been a long time coming, but ground should be broken soon for a new state prison in Centre County, the first of four correctional facilities the state will build to alleviate overcrowding.

Officials from the departments of Corrections and General Services had wanted to start construction on the $174 million, 2,000-bed prison in spring 2009, but legal challenges stemming from disputes between contractors who use union labor and those with nonunion workers delayed progress for months.

Work is to begin by late summer, officials said. The construction contract went to Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Chantilly, Va.

The new facility will be built near an existing prison, the State Correctional Institution Rockview, which employs 700 guards and other workers. The new prison -- to be called SCI Benner -- will have about 600 permanent workers, in addition to providing 600 to 800 construction jobs over the next two years.

"Building this new facility will help to address an overcrowded prison system that is literally bursting at the seams," said corrections secretary Jeffrey Beard.

The state system now has 27 prisons, which were intended to hold about 43,000 prisoners. The population recently surpassed 51,000 inmates, forcing some double-9celling of inmates and temporary conversion of nonhousing space into cells. The population has been steadily growing over the past 20 years due to strict sentencing guidelines and mandatory sentences for some offenses.

In the spring, the Corrections Department sent 2,000 Pennsylvania inmates to prisons in Michigan and Virginia to temporarily ease the crowding. But new prisoners continue to come in, adding to the need for more cells. Prisoners farmed out to the other states should be able to return when SCI Benner and three other new prisons are finished, but that probably won't be before 2014.

Some state legislators -- such as Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee -- are trying to change existing laws to permit nonviolent prisoners who are convicted of lesser crimes to serve their time at minimum-security, community-based correctional facilities, sometimes called halfway houses, as a way to lessen the state prison population. But some legislators are leery of appearing to be weak on crime, and the halfway house measures haven't moved forward.

Corrections officials hope to have the new Benner prison operating by fall 2012. Legal snags are holding up the start of construction on two other prisons, each with 2,000 beds, to be built near each other at the site of the current SCI Graterford in suburban Philadelphia. The antiquated Graterford prison, which has about 2,800 beds, will be mothballed.

Work at the Graterford site, however, is being delayed by a dispute over something called a Project Labor Agreement. The state is requiring the agreement for the Graterford job, which means the successful contractor must use unionized labor. Nonunion contractors contend that's unfair and have gone to court over the matter. The state made a labor agreement optional for the Benner job.

In addition, the state plans to build a fourth new 2,000-bed prison in German, Fayette County. State officials are finalizing agreements with property owners in the township.

The new Benner prison will incorporate energy-saving features from the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design ratings, which have been used in several major buildings in Pittsburgh.

The new prison "will be an energy-saving facility, providing great value and efficiency, which will yield long-term savings to state taxpayers," said general services secretary James Creedon.

In addition to the four new prisons, smaller housing additions are being built at SCI Cambridge Springs in Crawford County, SCI Forest County, SCI Pine Grove in Indiana County and SCI Coal Township in Northumberland County. The $862 million for all of the prison projects comes from the state capital budget.

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