Pipe bursts postpone opening of Lawrenceville bioterror lab
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Frozen and burst water pipes are the latest calamity to befall Allegheny County's $5.6 million bioterror lab in Lawrenceville which was finished a year ago but remains empty due to an assortment of breakdowns and delays.
Dr. Bruce Dixon, executive director of the Allegheny County Health Department, said the two rooms damaged by the burst pipes in mid-January should be fixed by the end of this month, and the building could be certified for occupancy in early April.
But that's only if the building's "Level 3" laboratory, outfitted with special ventilation systems, equipment and safety features that allow it to test for bioterror agents like anthrax, plague and botulism, passes an inspection, now tentatively scheduled for early next month. Passing the inspection allows it to become part of the federal Laboratory Response Network.
"There are still issues around the construction being resolved," said Dr. Dixon, who reported on the lab's status at the county Board of Health meeting yesterday. "A broken pipe valve put 3 inches of water in a couple of rooms and necessitated drywall replacement and the repair of insulation in an outside wall."
The lab was proposed in 2002, shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., and the county received federal anti-terrorism funding to build the second such bioterror lab in the state. The other is in Chester, near Philadelphia.
Although the lab will have the capacity to handle the worst of pathogens, the bulk of its work will involve regular county testing for infectious disease.
After delays in selecting a building site and design changes, construction finally started in the Health Department's Arsenal Campus late in 2006 and was finished in December 2007.
But problems last year with low water pressure in the sprinkler system caused by the poor condition of water mains leading to the building and the sophisticated ventilation system which is supposed to contain dangerous pathogens pushed back the lab's opening.
Another delay is possible if Larry Milchak, a former University of Pittsburgh biological safety officer now working in Wisconsin, can't schedule a visit in April to do the inspection, which is required to determine if the lab meets federal biological safety guidelines.
"We hope we can get this thing certified in April," Dr. Dixon said. "We desperately need this, but we want it to be right when it does open."
First Published March 5, 2009 12:00 am
