No road blocks on utility project at Horn Rapids Triangle
Watts Construction lays innerduct for the utilities project on the Horn Rapids Triangle, future site of the PSF. Shown in the background is the 300 Area, from which many scientific capabilities will be relocated to buildings closer to the PNNL campus
Watts Construction of Kennewick is about 90 percent complete with the PNNL portion of a $5-million utility project extending water, electrical power, sewer and other services to the Horn Rapids Triangle.
The utilities will support the Physical Sciences Facility research complex to be built under the Capability Replacement Laboratory project as well as the expansion of private technology research within the North Richland Research District. The city of Richland is managing the state-funded utilities project and is working together with PNNL to coordinate all aspects of the project.
"While the contractor is nearly finished with bringing the utilities to the triangle, Watts still has to widen Horn Rapids Road, add signal lights and modify the railroad crossing," says Greg Herman, Capability Replacement Laboratory.
Staff can expect Horn Rapids Road to be closed to through traffic until the end of August, but access to EMSL continues to be available at the west end of the road. The remaining road work, lights and landscaping is scheduled for completion by the end of October.
Watts currently is installing the innerduct in which fiber optic lines will be installed to bring communication services to the Physical Sciences Facility, a 200,000-square-foot complex that will house staff, equipment and research capabilities soon to be displaced because of accelerated cleanup at the 300 Area. The complex consists of three separate laboratories—the Materials Science and Technology building, the Ultra-Trace building and the Radiation Detection building—as well as the Ultra-low Background Detection Laboratory and the Large Detector Laboratory.
"Watts has done a great job in getting the utility systems in place to prepare for the site work contractor to begin work on the PSF in August," Greg says. PNNL is expected to break ground on the PSF sometime in August.