46 



AppendLX I 



A^ng Federai LAbormcoriea Need Repair* 



and L'pgradea 



BARc's demand for electrical power has grown over the years without a 

 corresponding increase in electrical capacity. As a result, barc is subject to 

 "brownouts" during the summer, when the demand for air conditioning 

 peaks. Furthermore, backup generator capacity is limited, and on 

 numerous occasions, backup generators failed to start during a power 

 outage. Other common problems related to aging facilities at bauc include 

 old hvac systems that have outlived their useful lives, poor drinking water 

 quality, leaking roofs, and drafty window frames. (See fig. 1.2.) 



In 1988. .\Jis proposed a $205 million, 10-year program to modernize barc's 

 laboratory facilities. The modernization program will renovate many of 

 barc's original buildings and cluster related research programs in larger 

 laboratory buildings to encourage interactions between researchers. 

 Overall, ars plans to reduce the number of structures, which include 

 laboratories, former animal quarantine buildings, greenhouses, and animal 

 sheds, from 800 to 165, even though the total square footage would be 

 reduced from 1.75 million to only 1.5 million gross square feet ars 

 facilities managers estimate that their new laboratory buildings will have 

 an efficiency of 70 to 80 percent in terms of net-to-gross usable space, as 

 compared with an efficiency of only 30 to 40 percent for older facilities. In 

 response to .^RS' proposal, the Congress has made available about 

 $70 million, according to ars officials. 



