A Building Boom for Labs
By JENNIFER S. FORSYTH and BETSY MCKAY
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
U.S. Plans to Spend $1 Billion On New Facilities to Study Highly Infectious Diseases
In October of 2001, McCarthy Building Cos. was about to break ground on one of its most challenging projects ever -- a high-security laboratory for the U.S. government in Atlanta -- when it suddenly got the order to stop.
The terrorist attacks on Sept. 11 had raised the specter that more attacks could come, possibly using biological agents. McCarthy's client, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suddenly wanted an even bigger, more secure facility. "CDC had a massive change order," says Walter Guest, senior vice president of St. Louis-based McCarthy, the project's general contractor. Costs increased about $30 million to $214 million, and the facility wasn't completed until this past October.
That jump in cost was a fraction of what the federal government plans to spend on new facilities to fight bioterrorism -- at least $1.0 billion over the next decade on seven large new buildings housing laboratories for research designated "biosafety level-4," reserved for life-threatening diseases with no known cure. The amount of space reserved for BSL-4 research could top 100,000 square feet in the seven buildings, experts say.
Labs that work on infectious micro-organisms range in levels of biosafety from one to four. BSL-1 labs, which resemble high-school science classrooms, are for agents that don't normally cause disease in healthy adults. In BSL-2 and BSL-3 labs, scientists wear protective gear to work on pathogens that are more easily transmissible to humans, such as measles (BSL-2) and tuberculosis (BSL-3). The BSL-4 labs are highly secure facilities that research the most infectious diseases, such as the Ebola virus and other viral hemorrhagic fevers.
For the past few decades, research on BSL-4 agents has been limited primarily to the CDC and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md. But with the threat of bioterrorism and emerging infectious diseases, these facilities aren't adequate for the growing demand for research into BSL-4 agents, scientists say. Prior to the new facility, the CDC's most recent lab for highly infectious diseases was built in 1988. A U.S. Army lab facility planned for Fort Detrick will be 700,000-square-feet -- the size of seven Wal-Marts -- and will cost at least $400 million, although plans could change by the time it is completed in 2013.
Some critics have questioned the many construction projects and the need for so much lab space devoted to BSL-4 research. "It's a mystery what they are going to fill these labs up with, because there are, frankly, not that many BSL-4 agents, and not that many researchers to keep these places busy," said Edward Hammond, director of Austin, Texas-based Sunshine Project, which monitors the U.S. biodefense program.
CDC director Julie Gerberding says the new CDC labs will relieve a research backlog. Among many projects the CDC has planned is testing of antiviral drugs to treat smallpox. In the past, "we would have to make really hard choices about what to work on," she says.
A few academics contend that the construction spree will overcompensate for past deficiencies. "Any one of these facilities would probably bring us into the position of meeting the national need, but we will be getting at least seven," said Richard Ebright, a chemistry and molecular biology professor at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Some communities have protested the research of deadly viruses in their neighborhoods. In July, the University of Washington abandoned its attempt to build a BSL-3 lab, ostensibly because of funding concerns, but the project also drew hundreds of opponents. The lab at Boston University Medical Center is expected to go forward but is facing legal challenges.
The BSL-4 labs were funded by congressional appropriations to individual agencies, namely the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, but also Homeland Security and Defense departments, after President Bush announced an aggressive program to fight biological threats after the anthrax scare of 2001.
The building boom presents an opportunity for McCarthy and a handful of other construction companies. Many of these companies don't specialize in high-security labs, but they aren't newcomers to this type of construction. McCarthy, for one, has built hospitals with containment areas for illnesses like tuberculosis.
"There's nothing else that we've ever seen that even comes close," says Mike Simpson, project executive for Houston-based Vaughn Construction, which built the BSL-4 lab at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and is currently constructing the university's second one.
Some of the other BSL-4 labs are already under way: Skanska AB's Skanska USA Building Inc. is constructing a lab in Hamilton, Mont., for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Gilbane Building Co., is building BSL-4 labs for the Department of Homeland Security and the NIAID at Fort Detrick. Turner Construction Co. and McCarthy are building a $178 million biocontainment lab at Boston University Medical Center.
The BSL-4 labs have numerous safety features. Only certain scientists may access the labs. Doors lock between chambers. Air flow is monitored on multicolored screens to make sure the labs are properly pressurized. Scientists working in the labs wear pressurized moon suits, hook up to their own air supply, and conduct all their work on infectious agents in biological safety cabinets, which also have their own air supplies.
In addition, all holes for electrical outlets, plumbing, cameras and piping must be designed in advance and embedded in the concrete walls. "If you screwed up and a conduit is in the wrong place, you cannot go and just chip that out of the concrete wall. You would have to demolish that whole wall and start over," said Mr. Guest of McCarthy Building.
The public concern and the demanding requirements of these facilities put pressure on project managers to educate their crews and subcontractors, says Jeffrey Schramm, vice president for the Providence, R.I.-based Gilbane. Vaughn Construction, which won the contract to build a $167 million lab at UTMB-Galveston, practiced building walls offsite to make sure it had the right concrete mix.
Administrators at the University of Georgia know too well what happens when a lab isn't done right. In 1996, the university started construction on an Animal Health Research Center to study livestock diseases only to find cracks in the structure. It is expected to open with a BSL-3 agriculture designation in early 2006.
"I've been involved in this project for about 15 years now -- this one building," says Michael Mispagel, facility program manager at the University of Georgia center. "I am ready to get this facility operational."
