Consolidated Forensic Laboratory in Washington DC – A Hopke Project to Remember

Historical projects are the backbone of W.B. Hopke’s success. Without them we would not be where we are today. So, it’s fitting that we acknowledge some of our past achievements, our “Historical Projects,” and share them with our readers.

Ours is an unusual business in that most of our brilliant work takes place underground. Have you ever wondered where all the water goes when it rains? Or how fresh water gets to a building? At W.B. Hopke, we install huge underground structures used for managing sanitary, water, and storm drainage most of which are concealed underground. Many of the materials we use in the wet utilities business go into the ground virtually unnoticed by the public, and because they are out of sight, they are forgotten.

We would like to share with our readers some of the past Historic projects that we are particularly proud to have been a part of including Consolidated Forensic Laboratory in Washington DC. Consolidated Forensic Laboratory (CFL) is a cutting-edge, award winning LEED science facility/building designed to provide the District of Columbia with critical public safety and health science infrastructure.

For Hopke, it is one of many large wet utility construction projects with general contractor Whiting Turner. Consolidated Forensic Laboratory is located at 401 E St SW, in Washington, DC, and the project started in 2009 and was completed in 2013. It was managed by Hopke Project Manager, Paul Cloutier. As Paul stated for this article, “It was a tough piece of work which consisted of pulling DC street cut and plumbing permits, which was a very complex process. Additionally, we installed sanitary in E Street using a tunneling crew from the curb line to the sanitary sewer main in E Street.”

The Consolidated Forensic Laboratory project required a large storm pipe crossing 4th street with multiple crossings, a precast storm vault on the west side of the building and an installed trench drain. A water meter vault was installed on the north side of E street and the major challenge was the water connections in E Street as the DCWATER test/shut down crew was extremely busy, and it took two months before the work could be performed.

W.B. Hopke is a fourth generation, family-run construction business focused on building high quality utility infrastructure and lifelong careers. Hopke is located in Alexandria, VA and works throughout DC, Maryland, and Virginia. With almost 70 years of experience, Hopke prides itself on repeat customers across all kinds of market segments – schools, churches, data centers, distribution facilities, multi-family, mixed use, residential subdivisions, senior living, self storage, heavy highway, retail, commercial office, automotive, stream restoration, and parks.

Contact W.B. Hopke about a career in utility installation and site work at 703-971-0404 or info@wbhopke.com.