The new Public Health Laboratory of the Comté officially opened its doors after a ceremony ceremony at the County Operations Center (COC) in Kearny Mesa on Thursday.
The installation of two floors measures 52,000 square feet, three times larger than the old cramped and obsolete building on Rosecrans. Once a shopping center and dating from 1965, it had not been designed to house a laboratory. The structure has been closed due to its aging infrastructure.
The new installation creates a space for nearly 90 employees and entrepreneurs who will test infectious diseases like COVVI-19, syncytial respiratory virus known as VR, flu and other diseases.
They will also test the safety of food and water, animal rage and dangerous pathogens such as anthrax.
In addition to these services, the enlarged laboratory will carry out the sequencing of the whole genome and will test the tuberculosis.
County microbiologists and other staff members worked with manufacturers to ensure that the laboratory would meet their needs and the directives of states and federals.
Consequently, the new building Provides a safe and secure installation with improved workflows, flexible spaces for large equipment, storage and the ability to set up for any future future in public health.
THE structure Includes R:
- Biosafety-Level (BSL) 3 Bioterrorism laboratory
- Tuberculosis (TB) Prep and BSL-3 TB Labs
- Genome sequencing laboratory
- Training laboratory
- Rage
- Surge Lab to increase the answer
The laboratory plans to carry out around 50,000 tests per year.
The new establishment will also serve as a laboratory of the response network in the disease of diseases and prevention for the counties of San Diego and Imperial.
Construction path
A survey on space needs on the COC campus has paved the way for construction.
Recognizing that COVID-19 has changed the way some people work, the survey has examined teleworking times, hotel spaces and future growth in existing campus departments. The results have shown that staff could be consolidated in three of the four existing office buildings.
With meticulous planning and renovation work, 12 departments are consolidated in three office buildings.
The reshuffle allowed 570 employees of the public health services who were previously in the Rosecrans building to enter the four -story vacant building and 150,000 square feet on the campus.
By avoiding the cost of $ 150 million in construction of a replacement for the health services complex, the county was able to build the public health laboratory and a nearby six level parking.
The $ 32.5 million parking structure was completed last year, adding 725 places and 237 electric vehicle charging stations. Roof solar panels have been installed to compensate for part of the laboratory energy consumption.
The laboratory revolutionary took place in October 2023. The installation reflects the architecture on the rest of the campus but differs slightly to differentiate it from other buildings. Like each building, the site presents its own public art and artifact displays.
Sustainability
The laboratory has been built according to Leed Platinum standards which represent leadership in energy and standard environmental design. The structure should become the 71 of the countyst LEED certified building.
The building includes solar panels, saves energy with natural lighting, retains the use of inner and exterior water, and has enabled the discharge space by recycling demolition and construction waste.
Construction has also reduced carbon embodied by 23% and refers to emissions made in the manufacture, transport, use and elimination of building materials. In this case, the building used concrete with low carbon content, steel and metal panels.
Throughout the region, the county has reached several stages of sustainability:
- 11 Zero net Energy Buildings which produce more energy than the building consumes in one year
- 16 MW of solar energy installed on county sites – providing 20% of the Comté’s total electricity demand
- 47% reduction in greenhouse gases for county operations since 2010
Master Plan of the County Operations Center
The laboratory and the parking structure mark the sixth phase of the COC campus master plan. In 2008, the supervisor council authorized the reconstruction plan and centralize a wide range of county operations in a single place – the 47 acres campus at Kearny Mesa.
Since then, the campus buildings that had survived their useful life have been destroyed and replaced by new modernized and environmentally friendly facilities.
See below for the list of main campus construction projects:
- Central plant
- Four office buildings
- Three parking structures
- Campus center / public audience rooms
- Emergency Operations Center
- Legalist’s office
- Voter registrar
- Fleet
- Sheriff technological information center
- Sheriff’s criminal laboate
- Public health laboratory