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New GMC to be open for business in spring
Progress is being made on the state’s new Geological Materials Center in Anchorage, a significant expansion over the existing Eagle River facility.
The Department of Natural Resources said in an Oct. 20 release that relocation to the new facility at 3651 Penland Parkway will begin at the end of October, with the new facility to be fully functional and open for business in the spring of 2015.
Among the geologic materials to be housed in the new 100,000-square-foot heated building are thin sections, core and cuttings representing more than 13 million feet of oil and gas drilling, 300,000 feet of core drilling from mineral projects, 115,000 surface rock samples and 96,000 pulps.
DNR said the new GMC will be an improvement over the Eagle River facility, with many features enhancing access to the facility’s library of geologic materials, including significantly expanded and improved core viewing facilities, large private viewing rooms, conference rooms, new microscopes, new sampling equipment and wireless Internet access.
Ahead of schedule DNR said that the state’s ability to convert the old Sam’s Club on Penland Parkway in Anchorage into the new GMC was a significant time and money savings, allowing the new facility to be completed several years ahead of the draft plan. The original budget - for construction of a completely new facility - was $45 million, but DNR said purchase of an existing building which required only slight modification dropped the cost of the project to some $24.5 million.
The relocation also puts the geologic samples and science at the fingertips of more students from K-12 to the university, and DNR said Walmart made a “significant contribution” toward purchase of the building, allowing “the new GMC to offer enhanced educational opportunities at the new facility.”
- Petroleum News
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