Leaders from Junction City, Manhattan, Wamego, and the respective counties they city’s reside in were updated Saturday morning on the progress of the construction of the National Bio and Agro-Defense facility being built in Manhattan.

Tim Barr, Project Manager for the NBAF Project, Department of Homeland Security explained that the $80 million power plant was completed this past October and work on the main lab is underway. Over 110,000 cubic yards of soil has been removed from the site and the concrete foundation is being poured, and concrete will continue to be poured on site for the next two and a half years. The project is currently on schedule to be operational by December 2022, and the transition from the current lab on Plum Island, New York, is expected to be completed by December 2023.

During the process that the lab is being constructed the region has already seen other companies related to NBAF move in, primarily in the Manhattan, eastern Pottawatomie County area. More of those companies are expected to move into the area and NBAF officials are encouraging the region to be prepared.

“Many of these bigger entities, if they locate something in the region, why, they may want an office right next door, but if they wanted to have some land to do whatever it’s probably going to be in the neighboring areas,” said Dr. Ron Trewyn, NBAF Liaison and Assistant to the President at Kansas State University. “It won’t necessarily be in Riley County, so I think Pottawatomie, Geary County, any of the others, and It could be some want to be closer to Kansas City, within the hub of the Animal Health Corridor.”

NBAF officials are also pushing for community members to become involved in task forces identifying the assets of the region in order to make it easier for businesses looking to relocate to the region to find available land to build.