Government

The U.S. Senate passed the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs 2008 spending bill in September of 2007. Providing over $963 million for military facility projects in Maryland, the bill will fund a two-stage expansion of the existing U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) laboratory. The completed $1-billion facility will be comprised of 1.1 million sf and will accommodate 1,300 employees. The first phase of the project will reach completion in 2012 with the second phase culminating in 2016.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded the University of Wisconsin-Madison $41 million over five years to support research at UW's Institute for Clinical and Translational Research. The funding, a Clinical and Translational Science Award, is one of the largest ever received by the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. The award will support the application of biomedical research to clinical treatment.

The U.S. Department of Energy has contracted Trane to develop strategies to reduce energy and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Part of the Transformational Energy Action Management (TEAM) initiative, the project aims to reduce energy intensity at the DOE’s sites nationwide by 30 percent for a savings of $90 million per year after the projects have been paid for. Trane will initiate building system upgrades, as well as implementing energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs) at selected DOE sites to create high performance facilities.

The National Institutes of Health National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is creating six Regional Centers for Excellence for Influenza Research and Surveillance. Each center will receive $23 million per year for the next seven years to support influenza research. The participating institutions are Emory University School of Medicine, St.

The Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology directorate is exploring possible sites for its proposed $500 million National Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF). Locations include Flora, Miss.; Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kan.; Texas Research Park in San Antonio; Umstead Research Farm, N.C.; the University of Georgia in Athens; and Plum Island, N.Y., the location of the existing BSL-3 Animal Disease Center which the NBAF will replace.

Project for Public Spaces (PPS) has collaborated with the U.S. General Services Administration to write and design a new book, Achieving Great Federal Public Spaces: A Property Manager’s Guide. This book is a valuable tool for federal and non-federal public building property managers seeking to evaluate and improve their lobbies, atriums, plazas, courtyards, and other public spaces.

The University of Chicago has appointed Laurence Hill as Associate Vice President for Research and for National Laboratories. The position was created due to a new University contract with Fermilab and will include responsibility for site office operations, University contract management, and board staffing for Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

The World Health Organization's 2007 report states that infectious diseases are emerging more rapidly and spreading more quickly due to increased human mobility and travel. As the increasing risk of disease outbreaks and epidemics escalates, these health emergencies can become threats to global public health security. The World Health Report 2007 examines contemporary infectious disease trends and examines the revised International Health Regulations (2005), which came into force in 2007, as a tool for health risk identification and management.

The City of Walnut Creek, Calif., has selected Gilbane Building Company to serve as CM Agent for the city's new $43.5 million library and parking garage. This 42,000 sf, two-story building is located in roughly the same location as the current downtown library built in 1961. Due to the current library being outdated and undersized, this project is intended to provide the needed space for books and materials, as well as the construction of an underground parking lot with approximately 150 spaces for public parking.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has published “Advancing the Nation’s Health: A Guide for Public Health Research Needs, 2006-2015.” Identifying research needs that need to be addressed during the next ten years, the guide is available at http://www.cdc.gov/OD/science/PHResearch/cdcra/.

The State of Maryland has chosen Gilbane Building Company to provide CM at Risk services for the new $37 million Forensic Medical Center. The facility will serve as the headquarters for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) of Maryland. The facility will be six stories totaling 120,000 sf with an area that will meet BSL-3 containment requirements. The architect for the facility is Gaudreau, Inc., with Gilbane’s Mid-Atlantic regional office overseeing the work.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture dedicated its high containment large animal facility in Ames, Iowa in July of 2007. As the second component of a multi-phase, $460 million project, the state-of-the-art animal health center will accommodate research on a variety of endemic, zoonotic and foreign animal diseases. Housing BSL-3 laboratories, the facility was constructed in three and a half years and cost approximately $85 million. The new building contains more than 155,000 sf and will house cattle, bison, elk, deer, reindeer, sheep and hogs.

The United Nations has selected Skanska USA Building to serve as the construction manager for the UN’s Capital Master Plan (CMP) renovation and upgrading of the international agency’s headquarters in New York City. Skanska expects to perform the project on a phased basis through 2014, with a total anticipated value of the work being approximately $1 billion. Skanska will negotiate, and submit to the UN for approval, separate Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) contracts for each phase of the project.

At a Congressional hearing in late July of 2007, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security established a research committee to explore ways of adapting the regulations for the storage of chemicals and hazardous materials for college campuses. As the cost and effort of complying with federal regulations for chemical storage can be extensive, the working group will review and revise the regulations in order to create a standard appropriate for university laboratories and facilities.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is planning to construct the National Synchrotron Light Source-II (NSLS-II) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. The DOE has granted the project Critical Decision 1 status, representing a significant step toward construction of the facility. Producing x-ray light 10,000 times brighter than the existing NSLS, the project will facilitate discoveries in advanced materials, energy technologies, nanoscience, and pharmaceutical development. The project budget is estimated at $750 to $925 million.