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Environmental Factor, January 2008, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
Clinical Research Unit Takes Shape
By Eddy Ball
January 2008
A portion of the main road through campus was closed as the modules were trucked in. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw and John Maruca)
A powerful crane lifted the units into place. The modules were pre-constructed in Pembroke, NC, fitted together and then taken apart before being trucked to the site. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw and John Maruca)
One by one, workers guided the units into place as the larger structure emerged. The units, which measure 15 feet by 77 feet, contain the wiring, walls, insulation, windows and even the office doors and door locks. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw and John Maruca)
The factory-built modular units that will make up the new Clinical Research Center arrived right on schedule in early December, and workers started placing the units and connecting them together to create a structure resembling the artist's rendition posted on the NIEHS web site.
The former parking lot adjacent to F Module sat idle for months before a flurry of site preparation activity began in earnest earlier in the fall. Construction should not take long, but the management and staffing of the facility are different matters, as the Office of the Scientific Director recruits physicians to staff the unit and works with the Institutional Review Board to approve study proposals.
