The plastics program at Penn State Behrend College has received a $1.5 million state grant to build a new plastics lab.
The grant is part of the state's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP). The $1.5 million will help with construction of the campus's eighth building, which will be called the Center for Manufacturing Competitiveness, according to a news release from the office of State Sen. Dan Laughlin.
The lab building will be at the Knowledge Park Research Facility near Erie. The new construction is a continuation of Penn State Behrend's Project Resolve, an initiative that works to reduce the environmental effects of plastics.
"The new CMC will host a plastics laboratory, a metal-casting laboratory and free space available to local manufacturers," Laughlin said. "The facility will also be the home to Erie County's only fully-serviced, heavy-haul battery test facility for locomotive, marine and mining purposes."
RACP is administered by the state's Office of the Budget for the acquisition and construction of regional economic, cultural, civic, recreational and historical improvements. RACP projects must have a regional or multi-jurisdictional impact and generate increases or maintain current levels of employment, tax revenues or other measures of economic activity.