Skanska was awarded a $403 million contract to consolidate Helix BioMedix into a single 29-acre campus. Before the consolidation, research and development operations were scattered around Puget Sound. The new campus consisted of 750,000-SF of seismically base-isolated buildings, including biopharmaceutical R&D labs, animal research, bio-containment (BSL3), process development labs, central utilities plant, campus amenities, administrative lab support, infrastructure improvements, and a pedestrian bridge. This state-of-the-art R&D campus accommodates over 1,000 researchers and support personnel and provides the required infrastructure for future site expansion. An ownership change midway through the project put much of the job on hold while the new owner evaluated plans for the overall campus. This disruption had potential for tremendous conflict with the onsite subcontractors but Skanska communicated the reasons for the hold and re-sequenced work activities to allow as much work to continue as possible. Skanska aggressively kept change order processing and payments on track to maintain subcontractor commitment. The project was successfully completed on time.
