BWTECH@UMBC CONSTRUCTION REPORT
September 2006

Construction of the university's research and technology park, bwtech@UMBC, is on schedule and the park's third building should be completed by August 2007. The third building, for the US Geological Survey's Water Science Center, will be a 1-story, 23,000 square-foot facility located at 5522 Reseaarch Park Drive.

The real estate development firm Corporate Properties Trust (COPT) is managing construction of both the USGS building and a 110,000 square-foot, four-story, multi-tenant building a bwtech@UMBC, the park's fourth of five planned buildings.

The grading permit for the USGS building was received the week of September 11. Progress thus far includes minor clearing and the start of perimeter sediment and erosion controls. "Over the next few weeks we will continue the aforementioned progress as well as perform mass grading of the site to begin development of the required elevations," states Ellen Hemmerly, executive director of the UMBC Research Park Corporation. "In approximately three weeks we will begin the concrete building foundations."

The USGS center employs over 60 scientists and support staff, who are expected to strengthen collaborative work with UMBC and U.S. Forest Service scientists who monitor the ecosystems of the Cheapeake Bay watershed and the health of the region's water supply, rivers and streams.

The USGS's decision to move from its previous location in White Marsh was strongly influenced by the longtime research partnership between USGS and UMBC's Department of Geography and Environmental Systems, Center for Urban and Environmental Research and Education (CUERE), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the U.S. Forest Service and the Baltimore Ecosystem Study.