Budget and Scope Stop Bureau Of Engraving Construction Start

According to the January 2025 BEP (Bureau of Engraving and Printing) Replacement Facility Quarterly Newsletter, a solicitation for the construction of the BEP Currency Production Facility at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center has been cancelled. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which has been partnering with BEP in the design and construction of the facility, cited “budgetary constraints and a reduction in the project’s required scope” as the reason for putting construction on hold. No further information from BEP or USACE could be obtained before press time.
The facility was to be built on a 104-acre site on Poultry Road, which runs northward from Powder Mill Road to Odell Road, about 0.5 miles west of the intersection of Powder Mill Road and Research Road. The 2018 Farm Bill authorized the transfer of the land from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for this purpose. In October 2021 Treasury announced its decision to move forward with the project after reviewing the Final Environmental Impact Statement and concluding that the project presented no significant harm to the various resources considered. A final supplemental environmental assessment for traffic and utilities mitigation was approved in September 2024.
Preparation of the site for construction had begun. Buildings on the site – four multistory laboratories and various other small buildings that had been used for poultry research until around 2012 – were demolished in the fall of 2023 and large trees on the property were cleared early in 2024. The newsletter reports that USACE will continue to work with BEP on a “path forward as reevaluations for this project are underway.”