Construction crews have installed the final girder at the new Chemical and Material Sciences building being constructed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Oak Ridge Construction Project Manager Gary Bloom says there is still a long haul ahead.
"We've been under construction since June and we'll be going until May of 2011," Bloom said. "It's about a 24-month construction project. We've got $60.5 million worth of recovery money and this recovery money allowed us to accelerate the schedule for over seven months to our base line. To date, we've created over 100 jobs on the project directly related to the field activities."
Daniel Joseph of McCarthy Construction Company of St. Louis expressed pride in the safety record to date.
"It's a huge toward completion of the building and completing the building successfully," Joseph said. "To date, we've done it very safely with no injuries to the craftsmen or trade people."
ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Department of Energy.