University of Arizona Bioscience Research Laboratories

The University of Arizona Biosciences Research Laboratory (BSRL) is a 4-story concrete building with a determined purpose and exceptional building features. MWG performed the structural special inspections of this building in addition to the structural design.

The BSRL building boasts long spans in the center of the building to create a wide breezeway at the ground and second floor. To create these long spans, the building has four 42-inch-wide and 56-inch-deep beams that span 60 feet. It was very important to MWG to ensure concrete placement of these beams were timely to warrant the beams would act as designed. Because the building had numerous exposed architectural concrete columns and walls, this was a constant theme to guarantee quality throughout. The construction of most of the BSRL concrete structure was during the heat of the Arizona summer, a challenge for the construction and inspection teams due to the standards of concrete temperature during placement. Because of this, many concrete placements were in the middle of the night, and the inspection team was constantly monitoring the concrete temperatures and batch times.