New infrastructure projects help LANL and the region

Parking garages, an office building, and a power substation upgrade the Laboratory’s facilities

February 3, 2022

Infrastructure Sm Opt
Laboratory leaders celebrate the ribbon cutting of the new Pecos Parking Garage and Ivy Castle office building. Left to right: Bob Webster, deputy Laboratory director for Weapons; Derrick Montoya, chief operating officer for Weapons Engineering; Ted Wyka, NNSA Los Alamos Field Office manager; Kathye Segala, associate Laboratory director for Capital Projects; Bret Simpkins, associate Laboratory director for Facilities and Operations; Thom Mason, Laboratory director; Kelly Beierschmitt, deputy Laboratory director for Operations.

Laboratory employees in several areas are moving into 2022 with modern, efficient office and parking space thanks to construction and infrastructure improvements we've recently completed at the Laboratory — work that also brings benefits to the wider Northern New Mexico community.

As the Laboratory increases its number of employees to support mission growth, it's crucial that its facilities are up to the task, both at the main Laboratory site and at its new locations in Santa Fe.

Easier parking

The new, three-story Pecos Parking Garage will bring relief to employees working at the busy TA-55 area, where the nation’s plutonium mission  is carried out. It offers 450 spaces plus a signage system that displays the current number of available spaces on each level. 

The Pecos Parking Garage is the second new garage built in 2021 (the Otowi Parking Garage near the National Security Sciences Building was opened in July). Both structures together have added about 900 parking spaces to the Lab’s campus, and each garage features nine charging stations for electric vehicles. Two hundred surface lot spaces have also been added.

New office space for scientists and engineers

More than 100 employees have a new dedicated, efficient place to work thanks to the addition of a two-story, 22,700 square-foot office building that was completed in November.

The Ivy Castle building is designed to give scientists and engineers a modern space in which they can perform the mission work that is essential to solving the complex, interdisciplinary challenges that we face today.

Upgraded power substation

Beierschmitt
Kelly Beierschmitt

Helping supply safe and reliable electricity to much of the Laboratory as well as all of Los Alamos County is a new power substation that was completed at the Laboratory in October.

The new substation replaces its 70-year-old predecessor with modern equipment and state-of-the-art safety features. It has greater current-carrying capacity, and will allow for expansion and flexibility as the power needs of everyone who relies on the substation change. 

Impressive team effort

All of these new pieces of infrastructure represent a tremendous team effort, both for Laboratory operations and capital projects staff, but also for our external partners.

Completing these projects would not have been possible without our invaluable team of subcontractors. Projects such as these create jobs across the region.

And as we look to the future, there’s a lot more work to do at the Laboratory to modernize and expand our facilities, creating more work for subcontractors and more job opportunities for New Mexicans that will benefit Northern New Mexico’s communities. 

> Kelly Beierschmitt is deputy laboratory director for operations and chief operating officer at Los Alamos National Laboratory