Ewart says the University of Saskatchewan hired PLC Construction as the construction manager because it wanted the contractor to be involved throughout the design phase.

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When the $140 million International Vaccine Centre (InterVac) is completed in spring 2011, the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) will possess one of the largest containment level (CL) 3 facilities in western Canada built to protect both people and animals from the threat of emerging or persistent diseases, such as avian influenza, tuberculosis and H1N1. Construction of the three-story, 155,000-square-foot vaccine research and development center began in November 2007.

InterVac will reside on the U of S campus adjacent to the Vaccine Infectious Disease Organization (VIDO). Established in 1975, VIDO is a nonprofit organization wholly owned by U of S, which operates with support from various levels of governments and private sector investments. It holds more than 80 U.S. patents and has commercialized seven vaccines, five of which were world firsts.

“VIDO is developing novel vaccine formulation and delivery systems including powerful, naturally-derived vaccine additives and needle-free methods,” it says. “Known as ‘platform technologies,’ much of this work is applicable across species and diseases.

“In a highly interdisciplinary and team-based environment, we are working to improve quality of life for animals and increase the competitiveness of livestock producers,” the organization continues. “We also aim to alleviate human suffering caused by diseases like influenza and hepatitis C, and by the lack of effective vaccines for newborns and many people in developing countries.”

Reaching New Levels
Before InterVac was developed, VIDO faced research limitations because it was operating out of a CL2 facility and therefore did not have the resources necessary to research CL3-level diseases such as West Nile virus and SARS.

CL3 is equivalent to the U.S. biological safety level (BSL) rating, which ranks the level of biocontainment precautions needed to isolate harmful biological agents in an enclosed structure. The U.S. levels range from BSL1 to BSL4, with BSL4 being the most dangerous.

“The idea of constructing a level 3 facility provided a good opportunity for VIDO,” U of S Project Manager Cam Ewart notes. But the university knew transforming InterVac from its initial concept to actual completion would be an arduous task and one that would require a team effort from the owner, architect and contractor.

Working in a joint venture, local firm AODBT and Winnipeg-based Smith Carter – internationally renowned for its work on biocontainment facilities – provided the design, and the Saskatoon office of PCL Construction served as construction manager.

“PCL has been a long-standing client with the University of Saskatchewan,” Ewart says. “One reason we chose to go with construction management is we wanted them at the table during the design process to provide us with their constructability input and cost estimating. Having them at the table during the design period helped them understand why things should be done in a certain way, and that attitude has been passed down to the subcontractors, as well. We also invited key subtrades to other biocontainment facilities under construction in North America to help them understand the challenges they would be facing.”

Complicated Construction
High-containment animal suites take up the bulk of the experimental areas within the laboratory. They are constructed to the equivalency of U.S. BSL-3Ag rating, which is a designation for containment laboratories capable of housing large animals.

These custom-constructed concrete rooms are designed to hold air pressure to specific levels and are required to pass air decay testing to assure airtight construction, Ewart says. Every service penetration in and out of each of the 18 animal rooms was engineered into the overall design and passes through a dedicated metal embed, which was cast into the concrete construction used in the floors, walls and ceilings of the rooms. Once every embed was positioned in amongst the other required conduits and reinforcing steel, the formwork became very busy, he notes.

“When you try to pour concrete into those congested forms, it doesn’t flow very well, so we used self-consolidating concrete – which flows similar to water – and that worked very well,” he says.

“However, because it flows like water, there are significantly higher pressures on the inside of the forms, so you have to build them more rigorously. It will also flow through any crack or crevice, so the formwork must be pretty much watertight. That can be a challenge for any construction company to pull off.

“We used building information modeling (BIM) to render the entire building’s construction in 3-D,” Ewart continues. “Special software allowed our team to identify any system conflicts or overlaps in virtual reality before actually starting construction.”

With the complexity of the infrastructure in the building, this would have been nearly impossible to achieve without the use of the BIM process, he adds.

“Because off the risks associated with a containment facility and the need for continuous operation, all mechanical and electrical systems need to be built with redundancy and backup,” Ewart says. “Additional air handling units are installed to provide backup in case of failure or required maintenance.”

In case of an electrical power outage, everything is on back-up power, Ewart continues. “We are installing three 880-kilowatt electrical generators that are purposefully oversized so they don’t run at full capacity and are interconnected so if one generator kicks out, the other two can carry the load,” he says.

The amount of power these generators produce could easily serve between 700 and 800 homes, he adds.

Built Safe and Secure
Because of the requirement for airtight construction, contractors had to ensure there would be no possibilities for cracking before the application of the interior epoxy coatings. The concrete curing period was nearly six months, which is significantly longer than the typical curing time of about 28 days, Ewart notes. “That restricted our activity in the areas in which the concrete was poured,” he says.

“Another issue is we are in Canada and have extreme environmental temperatures,” he continues. “In late 2008, when we were doing a lot of our high-containment concrete, we had a stretch where the daily high did not go above minus 25 degrees Centigrade – not counting the wind chill – which is absolutely insane to work in those kinds of conditions.

“It had a huge impact on the productivity of our crews and their general well being.” Safety was of paramount importance to both PCL Construction and U of S. “No matter what type of facility you are building, it’s not worth the price of a human life,” Ewart says.

“Our university is very strict in mandating safety performance from all of our contractors. We have an orientation program that each and every contractor has to go through every year to work on university projects. We have a dedicated safety coordinator who visits all of our construction sites. Safety is a huge issue for us and one that we take very seriously.”

PCL has a good safety program, he adds. “When we were first reviewing submissions, one thing we asked for was a copy of their safety manual so we could review it beforehand,” Ewart says. “They have very specific meetings with their subtrades, and they also have a safety coordinator on site whose job is to continually preach safety to everyone working on the site and to watch out for hazards. It’s an ongoing process that we continuously push.”

Not only is the InterVac project site safe, the building itself will be safe in terms of security. “We have a security system that requires multiple layers of entry,” he says. “No individual can come unannounced because they wouldn’t get in. Everybody that comes in has a full background security check conducted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and a federal security entity. Upon entering, you encounter multiple means of security ranging from card access to numeric pin pad to biometrics, which includes iris scanners, so it’s virtually impossible to get in this facility as an intruder.”