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The nearly $51 million project is expected to be completed in the fall, with its staff moving into the building in late October or early November. Eighty-five people are expected to move from the NMFS Auke Bay laboratory into the new 69,000-square-foot facility.

"We're at that point in the project where there's positive momentum and it continues to move in that direction," Gorman said.

Project Superintendent Scott Neuman of Portland-based J.E. Dunn Construction said the project is progressing well.

"We're actually ahead of schedule in a couple of areas," Neuman said. He said the interior wall framing is going faster than first expected.

NMFS Auke Bay Lab Deputy Director Steve Ignell said the lab is beginning to take form on the inside.

"They're in the midst of building the mechanical systems and that's quite impressive," he said. "It's a very complex building, both mechanically and electrically."

Ignell said there will be more than a dozen lab areas for scientists to study genetics, chemistry, biology and more.

"I think the building will provide increased capacity for our laboratory work," he said. "It will also provide increased quality for laboratory space."

The research facility is being built on a cliff above Lynn Canal. A well and pumps will provide sea water to the lab.

"That sea water system will have a capacity of up to 12,000 gallons per minute," Ignell said.

The building resembles the letter L, Gorman said, and will have windows that look south down Lynn Canal.

"There will be some great views," he said.

Ignell has given tours to nearly 100 NOAA employees in the last several weeks to help the staff get a feel for the new building. He said committees have been formed to work on office layout, developing outreach, and making the big move.

"There's an excitement that is brewing here," Ignell said. "I sense that among the staff as we see the light at the end of the tunnel."

Excitement is also brewing at the University of Fairbanks School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences in Juneau. The school is getting ready for the construction of a nearly $20 million new facility in the same vicinity of Lena Point.

"We're pretty well along in developing conceptual designs with the building ... . We're looking at getting into construction later this year," said Bill Smoker, director of fisheries for the school.

Smoker said the design is not final yet, but he expects it to be a nearly 30,000-square-foot, three-story facility with labs, classrooms and offices. A ground-breaking ceremony is planned for April 20, he said.

Smoker said UAF and NOAA will be able to collaborate and communicate easily when the two labs are completed.

NMFS will still use the space and location of the Auke Bay Lab, keeping about 20 employees there once the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute is operational. Ignell said the lab's estuarine studies, the maintenance division, new specimen archives and the dive locker will remain in Auke Bay.

Gorman said the new NMFS research institute will be a great addition to Juneau once it is completed.

"This will be very nice - state-of-the-art," he said. "There won't be a finer fisheries research lab in the North Pacific, from our point of view."