Virginia Tech | BSL Lab Renovation

Owner: Virginia Tech | Services: Cost Estimating

As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and a leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers about 280 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 37,000 undergraduate and graduate students. It is in the top 5% of universities in the nation for research expenditures and has a research portfolio of more than $556 million.

Axias provided cost estimating services for improvements to two biosafety level-three (BSL) facilities: the Infectious Disease Research Facility, a biocontainment building associated with the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine, and a laboratory managed by the Fralin Life Science Institute. Our services allowed VT to validate the budget in order to get NIH grant approval.

The project scope for the 4,400-square-foot infectious disease lab was a remodel to create flexible animal suites and a connecting corridor between BSL-3 and ABSL-3 (animal biosafety level) labs. Improvements included augmented biosafety features, engineering controls, and an HVAC system upgrade. At the Fralin facility, laboratory capacity was expanded by 1,400 square feet by reintegrating BSL-2 rooms with BSL-3 space, and substandard elements of the dedicated HVAC system were upgraded.  Mechanical equipment at both facilities was rebalanced and recommissioned to field-test and verify BSL-3 compliant design parameters.