Engineering Inc - March/April 2018 - 45

MULTI PROJECT

State-of-the-Art
Seismic Design
PROJECT: NATIONAL
BIOCONTAINMENT LABORATORY
WALLACEVILLE, UPPER HUTT
NEW ZEALAND
FIRM: MERRICK & COMPANY
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, COLORADO

T

he National Biocontainment Laboratory (NBL) of New Zealand has
been protecting the country and
its economy from existing and
emergent biological risks for more than 100
years. A new 35,000-square-foot laboratory
featuring state-of-the-art structural and
mechanical systems is scheduled to soon go
online, providing even more security for the
future.
Teamed with local consultants, Merrick & Company
provided planning, architectural, structural, mechanical, electrical and plumbing

Brad Andersen

(MEP) design for the new facility. The firm
also provided construction supervision,
commissioning and certification with regulatory bodies for the NBL.
"By far, the single biggest element of risk
and of innovation in this laboratory was the
seismic design that went into it," says Brad
Andersen, Merrick's senior vice president
and project executive for the NBL.
Because New Zealand experiences frequent earthquakes-nearly 14,000 a year-
the new lab is designed to survive a one
in 2,500-year earthquake. To accomplish
this, the Merrick team, including Dunning
Thornton, structural engineers, designed
the building to sit on 10 base isolators
and 20 slider bearings to reduce damage
and protect biocontainment during an
earthquake.
"In every biocontainment-type laboratory, the big risk element is making sure
that none of the dangerous pathogens can
escape the building," Andersen says. "We
work hard to make sure the
building is very tight, seals are
properly put together, air systems and mechanical systems
are all properly designed and
tight as can be. But once the

building starts shaking, all of the good work
we do to make sure that it stays tight is put
at risk."
Merrick designed all MEP systems to
maintain personnel and environmental
safety through directional airflow control,
HEPA filtration, effluent treatment and
system resiliency suitable for continuous
operation through any foreseeable national
emergencies. All MEP systems are located
on a dedicated mechanical floor to maximize
maintainability while minimizing the need
to disrupt programs on the floors below.
Other innovative aspects of this project
include sustainability considerations. "Laboratories are a big energy user," Andersen
says. "For example, you can't recirculate air
because it could become contaminated.
Limiting the amount of energy by modulating the air used to condition and circulate
through the lab plays a big part in making a
facility sustainable."
Building Information Modeling (BIM)
also contributes to the long-term efficacy
of the facility. Merrick developed the BIM
model with a facilities management interface
to automatically populate BIM data into a
computerized maintenance system for all
dynamic elements.
The new National Biocontainment
Laboratory in Wallaceville, New Zealand,
includes PC2 (BLS-2), PC3 (BSL-3)
and PC3 enhanced laboratories along
with the necessary support spaces in a
seismically isolated facility.
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