Wuxi Biologics Project Dundalk

Date: Tuesday, 7th June 2022

Time: 18.30

Venue: Online through Zoom

Lecture By: Greg Daly, GDCL Consulting Engineers

Construction is complete at the WuXi Biologics development, a €350m+ investment at a 50 acre (approx.) greenfield site, near Dundalk, Co Louth. The plant is the first for WuXi outside of China and with a gross floor area of more than 48,000 square metres, it is set to become the world’s largest single-use biologics manufacturing facility. There are four main buildings all of which steel framed. These are the Production Building, the Laboratory /Administration Block, the GMP Warehouse (incl. Cold Storage) and the Central Utility Building (CUB). There are also a number of ancillary structures, including site-wide Pipe Racking, Site Security Building, ESB Substation & Switch Room, Fire Pump House, and the Wastewater Treatment Plant. Construction commenced in January 2019. The project statistics are impressive: The civils/site works involved excavation/moving more than 200,000 tonnes of soil and included installation of in excess of 4,000m of underground services. A stormwater attenuation pond (volume = 2,400 cubic metres) was designed to regulate post-development discharge of stormwater from the site. In excess of 2,900 cubic metres of concrete was poured, approximately 7,500 tonnes of structural steel framing was erected, over 66,000 square metres of metal deck flooring laid and more than 9,000 square meters of cladding /glazing installed. At peak site activity the project employed more than 2,000 construction workers. The facility was commissioned in 2021 and ultimately will create over 400 jobs when in full production.