Lena Point Research Facility Progressing

Construction firms from the Pacific Northwest and Alaska will gather in Juneau February 27 for a pre-proposal conference on building the new $50 million fisheries research facility at Lena Point.

National Marine Fisheries Service officials have scheduled the meeting to answer contractor questions before technical proposals are due in mid-March. The bidding process will culminate in late May of this year when a contract is awarded to the successful construction firm.

The 69,000 square foot research facility of laboratories and offices is expected to be finished by the spring of 2004. About 100 National Marine Fisheries Service employees will move into the facility. Most will be researchers from the Auke Bay Laboratory in Juneau.

All design work, blueprints and environmental clearances for the new building are completed. "We'll be putting a beautiful new research building on what used to be a rock quarry site" said National Marine Fisheries Service program manager John Gorman.

"Local residents at Lena Point have expressed concern about construction noise and traffic," Gorman said. "We have been consulting with the residents and the city of Juneau to identify ways to mitigate construction impacts where we can."

The new Lena Point offices and laboratories will have their own environmentally friendly sewage treatment facility.

The February 27 meeting, which is open to the public, will be in the Juneau Federal Building in Room 105 at 8:30 a.m.

"This project has been in the works since about 1992, " said Gorman. "We've had help and cooperation from the City and Borough of Juneau as well as the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The project would have been impossible without the unwavering support of Senator Ted Stevens."

"We're excited to see construction beginning on this important project. .When completed, we believe this new complex will be the premier marine research facility in Alaska," Gorman concluded.

The University of Alaska Fairbanks also plans to construct a research building at Lena Point. It will be about 30,000 square feet and will accommodate some 75 faculty and students from their School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.

Anyone with contract process questions can contact Contract Specialist Judi Jzyk at 206-526-6039.

NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA fisheries) is dedicated to protecting and preserving our nation's living marine resources through scientific research, management, enforcement, and the conservation of marine mammals and other protected marine species and their habitat. To learn more about NOAA fisheries, please visit http://www.fakr.noaa.gov