The U.S. Army Public Health Center has begun construction on a new $210 million laboratory that will consolidate research work at 11 buildings located at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, the Baltimore Sun reported Thursday.
John Resta, director of the service branch’s Public Health Center, said researchers will use the 279,000-square-foot facility to “detect and analyze the various chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and physical hazards” that uniformed personnel, their families and civilians experience, Bryna Zumer writes.
Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, the service branch’s surgeon general, joined Resta during the groundbreaking ceremony Thursday.
Zumer reports the new lab will house public health professionals, chemists, health physicists, biologists, toxicologists and veterinarians to carry out research work on chemical compounds and other products as part of the Army’s sustainment and readiness operations.
Kelly Luster, a spokesperson for APG, said the consolidated hub for the center’s research operations is part of the service branch’s efforts to reduce its facilities’ footprint.
The Army Public Health Center expects the new lab to be finished by 2019, according to the report.
