Feds approve funding for new CDC facility

FORT COLLINS — The Centers for Disease Control has received funding to start construction of a new $80 million facility at Colorado State University’s Foothills Campus. As planned, the CDC will replace a 36-year-old facility that houses the agency’s Division of Vector-Borne Infectious Diseases, which opened at the Foothills Campus in 1967.

“We’re very crowded and we’re limiting our research because it’s so crowded,´ said Mel Fernandez, deputy director for management of the Fort Collins division. “Really, we just need a new building.”

CDC officials expect the facility to open in 2006.

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The existing CDC structure, which covers 31,000 square feet, was designed to hold 50 employees. Today, nearly 180 people work there.

The division is charged with studying diseases transmitted by insects, such as West Nile virus and Lyme disease. The agency leads the nation’s research on three of the top 10 agents identified by the government as possible tools for bioterrorists — plague, tularemia and equine encephalitis.

“Technically, the building supports very unique scientific research and it’s expensive,” Fernandez said.

The new facility will span at least 178,000 square feet, consisting of office and laboratory space, insectaries and space to house small animals, Fernandez said.

Initial funding for the project, part of an omnibus bill authorized last week, totaled $18 million. The entire project is expected to cost about $80 million, with future funding allocated by the government over the next several years.

Last year the division received funding to begin the design phase for the new facility and to upgrade security at the existing building.

“This facility here has the most stringent security systems in place, including biosafety within the building,” Fernandez said. The facility is surrounded by fence, with security guards and video cameras on constant watch. The operation is as safe as it can possibly be, she said, but the aging facility and increasing staff levels are stressing the operation.

To accommodate immediate needs, two modular trailers will be added near the existing facility over the next few months, Fernandez said.

Atlanta-based CUH2A is designing the project and Skanska USA Building Inc. secured the contract management portion.

CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben said that a groundbreaking date has not been determined, but the facility should be operating by spring 2006.

CSU owns the current building and CDC’s lease expires in 2007. The university’s plans for the old building after the CDC vacates it are uncertain.