Lonza Biologics

10K sq.ft – Safety in Pill Form

Project Overview

Lonza Biologics, located in Hopkinton, MA, is a leading supplier of contract biopharmaceutical development and manufacturing services. The company was founded in 1987 as Seragen Inc. and was one of the first to produce a licensed biologic. The facility supports process development, and analytical and cGMP manufacturing services for the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients for clinical trials and commercial products. in 2009, Pristine Surfaces was contracted to install a 10,000 sq.ft. Methyl Methacrylate (MMA) flooring system as part of a new $10M facility buildout.

Project Details

The Challenge

Provide a flooring system that could stand up to the caustic environment biopharmaceutical facilities offer while providing a state-of-the-art, decorative look. Our MMA flooring system offered the perfect combination of Seamless, Safe, and Sanitary—chemical resistance flooring with a decorative appeal for the Lonza production environment. However, MMA has a unique set of challenges when installing: because of the material’s volatile organic compounds the product can be extremely offensive to smell. This presented quite the challenge for Parsons Technology and Pristine Surfaces to deliver on time and on budget without affecting 30 other contractors and hundreds of workers on site as part of the buildout.

The Solution

All Pristine Surfaces personnel are OSHA certified as well as certified by the manufacture to ensure the proper skill set when handling such sensitive material. In addition all Pristine personnel attended Lonza’s company safety seminar to understand surrounding facility hazards and safety procedures. By understanding Lonza’s safety program and with access to Parsons detailed Project Plan, Pristine developed a plan to install all MMA materials during off hours to minimize the impact to other contractors. In addition we built a temporary containment area with a ventilation system to safely expunge all vapors from the installation area. We contracted the use of large metal storage containers to store all materials on site. At the same time, our project managers met collectively with representatives of all project contractors to communicated safety needs and work schedules. All Pristine Surfaces technicians were required to wear safety masks and respiratory systems.

The Result

Pristine Surfaces delivered an MMA Decorative flooring system on time and on budget and without incident, while effectively solving the unique set of challenges MMA installs present. Our expertise and careful understating of MMA flooring systems enabled us to develop a project plan that could be implemented without affecting the status and timelines of this very complicated buildout. As part of the overall success on the planning and execution of our project plan, Pristine Surfaces received an award of recognition from the project’s General Contractor for excellence in safety and project planning.