May 28, 2015
Construction of NBAF lab begins following Wednesday ceremony
Submitted by Communications and Marketing
Federal officials broke ground for the National Bio and Agro-defense Facility, or NBAF, on Wednesday, May 27.
The ceremony included remarks from several key federal and Kansas delegation members, including Reginald Brothers, under secretary for science and technology at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Karen McCulloh, mayor of Manhattan; Gov. Sam Brownback; Rep. Kevin Yoder; Rep. Lynn Jenkins; Rep. Tim Huelskamp; Sen. Jerry Moran; Sen. Pat Roberts; Tom Vilsack, secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; and Jeh Johnson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Kirk Schulz, Kansas State University president, touched on the history of bringing NBAF to Manhattan in his remarks. 
The ceremony concluded when Johnson presented an official notice to begin construction on the research facility.
NBAF is being built on the northeast edge of the K-State Manhattan campus. Construction of the lab is projected to be complete in December 2020. The lab's central utility plant has been under construction since 2013 and is about 90 percent complete. It will be finished in October.
NBAF will be the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's foremost animal disease research facility. The biosafety level-3 and biosafety level-4 laboratory will include research of emerging, high-consequence livestock diseases that threaten animal and human health and the nation's food supply.