Springfield firms nab Carthage crime lab contract

Springfield-based contractor Federal Construction Inc. will begin construction in mid-November on a Missouri Highway Patrol crime lab in Carthage.

The single-story, 5,860-square-foot building was designed by two Springfield-based architecture firms, Creative Ink Architects LLC and Buxton-Kubik-Dodd Inc., according to Tim Bartholomew, project manager with Federal Construction.

Smith-Goth Engineers Inc. performed mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineering, while Great River Engineering of Springfield Inc. conducted civil engineering.

The building will be used by the Highway Patrol's Crime Lab Division and its Division of Drug and Crime Control, with the crime lab taking up the bulk of the space, Bartholomew said.

The building, which has an estimated cost of $890,000, will be next door to the Highway Patrol's Troop D satellite station, at 4282 S. Grand in Carthage.

"They were all squeezed into that building right next door, so we're providing some office space for them in the new building," said Gary Claspill, project manager for the Office of Adminisration's Division of Facilities Management Design and Construction.

A temporary crime lab had been set up at Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, but Claspill said workers at the lab have been crowded.

"Their space had been downsized," he said. "I think the university had other plans for that space, so the new lab will free up some space for them."

The facility will have a concrete-block exterior with a metal roof. The building will have security features and is designed to improve operational efficiencies for the Highway Patrol.

"It's got an evidence vault that's going to be a secure area in the building," Bartholomew said.Springfield Business Journal Features Editor Maria Hoover contributed to this report.