Construction Begins on NCDA&CS Agricultural Sciences Center

RALEIGH – The corner of Reedy Creek and Edwards Mill roads will look a lot different in the coming years. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler and special guests broke ground on the 220,000-square-foot N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Agricultural Sciences Center. The $107 million project is projected to be completed in 2020. The building will replace five NCDA&CS facilities, most with labs more than 40 years old.

 “This is an exciting time for us as we break ground on a state-of-the-art building that is 40 years in the making,” said Troxler. “This is the largest building project ever undertaken by the department. I am proud of the effort that has gone into making this building a reality, and I look forward to continuing to serve the needs of the agricultural and agribusiness industry and the citizens of North Carolina. I consider this lab to be a long-term investment in the future of agriculture, North Carolina’s No. 1 industry.”

The center will replace facilities used by the department’s Food and Drug Protection, Standards, Structural Pest Control and Pesticides, and Veterinary divisions. The labs work focuses on food safety, animal disease diagnosis, weights and measures calibration, and motor fuel quality. The center will provide space for about 200 employees.

Following are NCDA&CS divisions moving into the Agricultural Sciences Center:

• The Food and Drug Protection Division serves as the main food safety and defense testing lab in the state, processing about 20,000 samples each year. 
• The Veterinary Division’s lab is the central veterinary lab in the state. Last year, it performed more than 570,000 animal disease diagnostic tests and over 3,500 necropsies.
• The Standards Division’s weights and measures lab calibrated more than 23,000 weights used in industry or by scale service companies. It also serves almost 500 customers from the pharmaceutical, defense, manufacturing and other industries.
• The Standards Division’s motor fuels lab monitors fuel quality This lab tests about 21,000 samples of gasoline, diesel, kerosene and motor oil a year and makes more than 75,000 determinations from those tests.
• The Structural Pest Control and Pesticides Division administered more than 1,500 structural exams and more than 6,000 pesticide exams last year.

HH Architecture of Raleigh designed the NCDA&CS Agricultural Sciences Center. A partnership of T.A. Loving Construction Company of Goldsboro and J.E. Dunn of Kansas City will serve as construction managers for the project. 

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