Education and Training Offset Contractors' Lack of Biocontainment/Biosafety Experience
While there may be a robust core design community in biocontainment, there are very few contractors who have biocontainment construction experience. The University of Pittsburgh's Biomedical Sciences Tower III (BST3) illustrates strategies for coordinating and educating trade contractors through problem-solving methodology, early construction manager involvement, a contractor education program, contractor/design-team coordination sessions, and mock-up reviews.

The University of Pittsburgh's Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (RBL) is an approximately 30,000-gsf facility comprised of BSL-3 and ABSL-3E research space. With a project of this size and magnitude, testing is crucial. Team leaders, Jeffrey R. Zynda, associate at Payette, and Edward P. Elinski, senior project manager, Mascaro Construction Company, determined that mock-ups would provide the proper testing vehicle prior to construction completion, and areas requiring adjustment or construction techniques requiring perfection could be resolved prior to the completion of the project.

National Institutes of Health Implements Advanced Predictive Maintenance Strategies
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently established a condition-based maintenance (CBM) program for the organization's BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities on its Bethesda, Md., campus. The CBM approach, utilized by the U.S. Navy and other asset-intensive commercial organizations, is a process that analyzes equipment condition data to make timely decisions regarding maintenance of critical facility components. The system has proven to significantly minimize facility operating costs by increasing reliability and research output while minimizing downtime.

Due to the high costs related to operating BSL-rated facilities, instituting a comprehensive, data-driven facility operations and maintenance program is one of the biggest factors in the long-term success of biocontainment research programs. The cost of operating a biocontainment facility will exceed the facility design and construction cost within the first five years of operation, according to data presented by Daniel Smith of Atlanta-based Smith Carter Architects.

Expert Says More Than Half of all Biocontainment Labs are Incorrectly Constructed
Too many multimillion-dollar biocontainment facilities built around the world are not immediately usable due to faulty design and construction. Tony Della-Porta, managing director of Biosecurity & Biocontainment International Consultants, suggests that the best way to succeed in building a safe, functional, easily serviced facility is to include lab users, along with building management and maintenance staff, as part of the design team. The team must work together to supervise the construction and purchase proper biocontaining equipment.

University of Chicago
The Howard Taylor Ricketts Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (HTRL) is one of 13 regional and two national biosafety labs funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The HTRL is owned and operated by the University of Chicago.

Howard T. Ricketts RBL to Serve as Midwest Center for NIH
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a $22-million grant to the University of Chicago to build the Howard Taylor Ricketts Regional Biocontainment Laboratory (HTRL), one of thirteen regional and two national biosafety laboratories funded by NIAID. The University secured an additional $6.7 million in grant funding from the State of Illinois before construction began on the lab in July of 2006.

CMc Approach is Used with Complex Construction Projects
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which operates four national laboratories, is in the process of building a fifth, the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), at Fort Detrick, Md. When the Department was created in 2003, DHS began occupying the facilities of existing departments, such as the Coast Guard and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, which came under its new purview. As the Department expands, its need for new facilities also grows; this is the first major project of its kind that the DHS has designed and constructed.

The Need to Plan Ahead Has Never Been More Critical
Retrofitting science facilities is always a challenge, but transforming existing space into a BSL-3 lab--and maintaining it to original standards over time--is probably as close to mission impossible as any institution would care to get. Hurdles loom at every step, from limited space and limited budget to the limited number of qualified contractors willing to take on these small jobs.