COLORADO SPRINGS - Builders and soldiers broke ground Wednesday on a housing development at Fort Carson to make room for some of the thousands of soldiers moving here in the next three years.

Officials from GMH Military Housing, the construction company building the 404 units, joined Fort Carson's garrison commander, Col. Eugene Smith and a Pentagon representative in praising the new homes as a step up in quality and amenities for American soldiers.

"We are striving to provide the same quality of life for soldiers and their families as the people they are pledged to defend," said Ivan Bolden, assistant for policy of the Office of Assistant Secretary of the Army.

The three-year, $124 million project will provide units that span the range from 12 new single-family homes for senior officers to duplex and multiple-family homes for junior enlisted soldiers' families.

Under the Army's Residential Communities Initiative, the homes are financed and built by private contractors, then leased back to the Army.

In addition, Fort Carson is renovating 481 existing homes for junior enlisted personnel.

In all, the project will give the post about 3,066 family housing units, providing on-post accommodations for about 30 percent of married soldiers assigned to Fort Carson.

"It shows a commitment to our soldiers and their families, that we're interested in their well-being and we're providing them with the quality of homes that they deserve," said Smith.

The added homes will accommodate some of the 8,000 to 10,000 additional soldiers moving to Fort Carson beginning this spring and running through 2009, as the 4th Infantry Division relocates from Fort Hood, Texas.

The division's move will raise Fort Carson's total troop strength to about 24,500, the largest since the Korean War.

Along with the additional soldiers will come about 14,000 spouses and children, the Army estimates.

"We have one brigade that will be moving in through the spring and summer time, the other brigades in early 2009," said Smith.

About $1.7 billion in construction to house the division is under way at the post and will continue over the next few years.

The projects include an addition and renovation at Carson Middle School, construction of a large compound for an additional brigade coming from Fort Hood and renovation of the current barracks and brigade compounds.