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The largest construction project in Sandia National Laboratories' history is finished.

The Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Applications project, called MESA, when it was introduced in 1999 was supposed to cost $516 million and be completed in 2011.

When destruction of old buildings is complete in fall 2008 —construction of the site's three buildings is already finished — the project will come in three years early and $40 million under budget at $476 million.

That's a rarity in the realm of government projects, said Bill Jenkins, project manager.

"That doesn't happen very often — that you save money," Jenkins said. "We're very proud of it."

Officials will dedicate the project's final building, the Weapons Integration Facility, this morning.

The size and cost of the project was about 10 times that of a typical project at the labs, Jenkins said.

MESA's two other buildings were finished in 2006.

Overall, the three-building, 400,000-square-foot MESA complex includes factories, science and research labs and a design facility — all focused on the microscopic sciences of microtechnology and nanotechnology.

Microtechnology — which is technology the size of several human red blood cells — has led to smaller, faster computers and cell phones and increasingly advanced and accurate printers, sensors and medical devices.

Nanotechnology — which is technology the size of atoms or molecules — is often used to make microtechnology work more efficiently. Using it, scientists have created advanced waterproof coatings, chemical sensors and liquids that help microsystem gears run more smoothly.

Sandia uses the two technologies to build security and trajectory components for nuclear weapons, with a goal of ensuring that the nation's nuclear arsenal will work effectively and safely, said Jim Woodard, director of weapons integration at MESA.

"We're looking at a number of very small safety components," including tiny machines that can evaluate very distinct signals and security codes on a weapon, Woodard said.

The advantage of the technologies are that they let engineers and scientists develop more reliable, less expensive components, Woodard said.

The technologies — and MESA itself — are also a big draw for businesses and high tech economic development in the Albuquerque area, said Mike Skaggs, former director of the city's Next Generation Economy Initiative.

"Our companies working in those areas are really doing well," Skaggs said. "And now you have MESA, with unique facilities and a place to prototype products — we're really ready to seize the day."

MESA includes several classified areas, but it also has space dedicated to collaboration with universities and businesses.

The new Weapons Integration Facility is unique because it includes factories for producing both silicon wafer-type computer chips and for compound semiconductors, which are tiny lasers and other optical devices used in cell phones and DVD players, said Michael Cieslak, director of the MESA project.

"Having both is a real rarity because a lot of the materials you'd use to make compound semiconductors are poisons to things you would use to make silicon materials — and the same is true the other way around," Cieslak said.

The Weapons Integration Facility has each type of factory, connected in the middle with an integration area where the two technologies can be combined without being damaged, he said.

That area will allow a lot of classified research to improve weapons, Cieslak said.

"I wish I could tell you what we can do with it, but I can't," Cieslak said. "Lets just say it will allow some interesting functions."

A facility like that will also draw more top engineering and scientific minds to Sandia, which in turn could lead to more commercial products and businesses in Albuquerque, Skaggs said.

"The big expectation of those facilities is that because of the prototyping abilities they will bring some of the best and brightest here," Skaggs said.

The Weapons Integration Facility was completed and employees started moving into it July 2. The full staff, 375 people, should be moved in by the winter, Jenkins said.

The total number of employees working in the facility is about 650. But those aren't new jobs — they're positions that are moving from other parts of the labs, Jenkins said.

The only thing left in the project is to tear down a 50-year-old warehouse and several trailers that previously were used for activities related to microtechnology and nanotechnology.