CDC selects McCarthy as CM for biosafety lab

McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. has been chosen as the construction manager (CM) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for a new High Containment Continuity Laboratory (HCCL) at the Roybal Campus in Atlanta, Ga.

The new facility, which is part of the CDC’s 2025 Masterplan, currently is in the pre-construction/design phase with construction planned to begin in early 2021. Post completion, the HCCL will be one of three facilities in the world designed and certified to facilitate diagnostic research on specific, select viruses.

The new 160,000 SF, multi-story research building will increase the CDC's research capacity to sustain its diagnostic mission and support its public health mission by helping communities prepare for, detect and respond to consequences of all public health hazards. The HCCL building will be a Biosafety Level-4 (BSL-4) facility, a designation reserved for the highest level of biological safety and it will accommodate approximately 80 laboratory researchers.

“For the past two decades, McCarthy has been the premier high containment laboratory builder in the nation and we are thrilled to have been chosen to build this new addition to the expanding CDC Roybal campus,” said Bobby Campbell, executive vice president of McCarthy in Atlanta.

As a BSL-4 laboratory, the new facility will feature high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtered supply and exhaust air, air pressure resistant doors, pressure cascade zoning, effluent collection and treatment, and pressure decay tested coatings and penetrations, as well as high purity breathing air and chemical decontamination showers for research staff. In addition, there will be connections to the existing Roybal campus utility systems with below grade utility tunnels and a two-level bridge connection.

“McCarthy has constructed the majority of the BSL-4 laboratory space in the United States, including the completion of the BSL-4 Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory on this campus 15 years ago. We are looking forward to bringing our experience full circle back to the CDC to build an efficient, functional, and technologically advanced research laboratory,” Campbell said.

As a leader for the past two decades in constructing facilities that conduct research related to infectious diseases, biological agents, and other sensitive scientific and medical research facilities, McCarthy Building Companies has built more than 25 percent of the BSL-4 facilities in the United States, including more than 50 percent of the gross square feet.

In addition to the CDC, McCarthy’s biosafety projects have included Boston University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture locations in Ames, Iowa and Manhattan, Kan.

The CDC has selected Flad Architects, Page Southerland Page and WSP to plan, program and design the HCCL. Part of the project management team is from McCarthy’s St. Louis headquarters.

With extensive knowledge and experience in biosafety projects, both Flad and McCarthy are also currently working together on the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan, Kans., the only BSL-4 large animal facility in the nation.