The State of Michigan officially broke ground on a new public health and environmental science laboratory to be constructed at the State Secondary Complex in Dimondale, southwest of Lansing.
The 300,000-square-foot facility, when completed in late 2026, will house consolidated lab space for the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (MDHHS); the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE); and the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO).
The total budget for the project is $326 million, which includes $260 million in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act’s Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.
The lab will feature sustainable design elements, including a geothermal-based heating and cooling system, extensive use of daylighting and energy efficient LED lighting, water-saving plumbing fixtures, and cross-laminated timber on the exterior wall panels, which offers high carbon sequestering to help reduce the facility’s carbon footprint.
The new building will be maintained and operated by the Michigan Department of Technology, Management & Budget.
“The Bureau of Laboratories performs expansive testing to protect the health and safety of the public — including newborn screenings, testing for infectious diseases like tuberculosis or legionellosis, testing for infectious agents and toxins like rabies or harmful algal blooms, and monitoring for chemicals in fish,” says Elizabeth Hertel, director of the MDHHS.
The new facility will expand on and enable testing and other laboratory functions in a safe, secure environment designed to promote efficiency, collaboration, and innovation.
The MDHHS Bureau of Laboratories currently provides a wide variety of clinical and environmental public health testing. Its total volume of all testing is close to 7 million tests per year, making it one of the top seven state public health laboratories in the nation. Examples of testing include:
“More than 10 million people rely on EGLE to monitor the quality of their air, soil, and water, and we serve as Michigan’s principal drinking water laboratory under the Safe Drinking Water Act,” says Phil Roos, director EGLE. “This new laboratory will increase the speed and efficiency of our handling of more than 100,000 samples and 2.5 million test results that EGLE currently processes every year, which is critical to protecting the public health of all Michiganders.”
LEO’s Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA) helps protect the safety and health of Michigan workers by collaborating with employers and employees to prevent workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities.
With two enforcement divisions covering general industry and construction industry employers, MIOSHA consultation and enforcement staff collect samples during their field activities and send them to the MIOSHA laboratory for analysis.
Editor: R.J. King
Associate Editor: Tim Keenan