Washington ? Construction on a new cemetery for Fort Riley will begin this fall, after the Department of Veterans Affairs made federal dollars available for the project.

Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said Wednesday that the VA assured him an agreement between the agency and Kansas officials would be finalized over the next few weeks so work could proceed.

The new Fort Riley State Veterans Cemetery will augment the military base’s old site, which ran out of space last month.

“Now that Fort Riley’s post cemetery has reached capacity, it is more important than ever for this state veterans cemetery to move forward swiftly to provide honorable burial space for Kansas veterans,” Moran said.

Kansas lawmakers were concerned because the timeline for finding money to build the new cemetery already had already been pushed back once.

About 5,000 veterans and family members have been interred at the post cemetery since it opened in the 1850s.

The new cemetery is west of Manhattan Regional Airport on 90 acres of land donated by Fort Riley. It will include space for about 10,000 burial sites.

It will be the state’s fourth state veterans cemetery. Like the other three, design and construction costs come from the VA, but it will be operated by the state.

State veterans cemeteries provide burial space for service members who have served a term of active duty and been honorably discharged from the military, Reserve forces or National Guard, as well as for their dependents.

Fort Riley officials have said it will take about a year before the new cemetery is open for burials. Until it’s finished, eligible veterans can be buried at one of the three other state veterans cemeteries in Kansas or at a national veterans cemetery, such as Fort Leavenworth.