On
January 17, 2003, nearly 650 Laboratory employees began
moving from FBI Headquarters in Washington, DC, to a
new facility in Quantico, Virginia. All moving was done
after regular business hours beginning Friday evenings
and continuing until the scheduled units were completed.
Most moves were done within 20-30 hours. The moves were
scheduled for weekends through March until all 24 case-working,
response, and administrative units were relocated.
A
week prior to the scheduled moves, the evidence from
the case-working units was moved by armed escorts. A
commercial mover was contracted to pack and move office
and laboratory supplies, equipment, and furniture. To
satisfy security concerns, Laboratory personnel were
assigned line-of-sight duties during 12-hour shifts
to watch the movers while they worked in FBI Headquarters
and in the new Laboratory building.
As each van was loaded, Laboratory personnel counted
and recorded the number of items. When a van was full,
it was locked and tamper-proof sealed. Teams of 8-10
moving vans made the 100-mile round-trips repeatedly
during the night, followed by escorts in cars that maintained
line-of-sight control of the vans. Upon arrival at the
new Laboratory building, the seals were verified and
then the vans were unlocked.
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Click photos for larger images. |
The
Laboratory's nearly 500,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art
design reveals four floors for specialized laboratories
and offices and a library on the fifth floor, a 900-space
parking garage, and a stand-alone central utilities
plant. The facility is a model for security and evidence
control with specified paths for the acceptance, circulation,
and return of evidence.
Laboratory areas are separated from offices and public
areas to avoid evidence contamination and provide examination
areas free of distractions. Access to the laboratories
is controlled with biovestibules to provide areas to
change in or out of appropriate laboratory attire and
serve as airlocks between laboratories and offices.
The building was designed to limit exposure to biohazardous
materials and curtail transmittance of airborne pathogens.
The Laboratorys infrastructure includes fiber-optic
computer and communications access and an uninterrupted
power supply. The new Laboratory buildings modular
configuration allows for physical growth and internal
reorganization.
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Dwight
E. Adams Assistant Director Laboratory Division Federal Bureau of Investigation
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The
Laboratorys dedication ceremony was held on April
25, 2003, and attended by congressional, governmental,
and FBI officials. The new FBI Laboratory was open for
tours before and after the ceremony. A display of the
operational response capabilities was staged on the
grounds. On Saturday, April 26, Laboratory personnel
were invited to bring their families to tour the building.
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