Oregon State Police are gearing up to build a new forensic laboratory and medical examiner facility on Chad Drive in Eugene, a move that would trade the cramped Springfield crime lab for a purpose-built complex and boost regional autopsy capacity. Plans for the site at 3300 Chad Drive call for roughly 68,000 square feet of space with an estimated $71.6 million construction budget. Construction is scheduled to start in March 2027, with an anticipated opening in January 2029, and OSP says employees currently based in Springfield will shift over to the new Eugene campus.
What the plans include
Design documents filed with city planners outline two main buildings wrapped around a central courtyard: a one-story medical examiner wing that includes training areas and a two-story structure for crime-scene and lab operations. According to plans reported by The Register-Guard, the project would house a firearms lab and indoor firing range, autopsy suites with a dedicated decomp autopsy room and cooler storage, and specialized labs for fentanyl analysis, toxicology, latent prints, biology and evidence storage.
Site purchase and acreage
State records show the property at 3300 Chad Drive totals 6.5 acres, with about 5 acres usable for development. Documents from the Department of Administrative Services indicate OSP entered into a purchase-and-sale agreement for the site in late 2022.
Staff moves and local partners
The Eugene complex is set to replace the forensic lab at 3620 Gateway Street in Springfield, with the deputy medical examiner and current laboratory staff relocating to the Chad Drive facility. Lane County, which now rents the RiverBend morgue, has signaled it will instead make use of the new site. Lane County District Attorney Chris Parosa told Eugene Weekly, "We are really excited that OSP is opening up a major morgue in our community," adding that bodies from across the region will be directed there.
Timing, procurement and staffing questions
Project documents list a March 2027 groundbreaking and a January 2029 completion date, according to The Register-Guard. A vehicle-trip analysis submitted with the plans estimates 10 to 15 employees on site, even though OSP has said the Springfield lab’s roughly 23-person workforce will relocate, a discrepancy that planners will likely have to sort out as the project advances. The state’s procurement portal shows bid packages and a solicitation for building-system commissioning that went out this spring, according to OregonBuys.
Why it matters for investigations
Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors across the central Willamette Valley lean on OSP’s forensic network for DNA testing, toxicology and firearms analysis, and officials say the Eugene buildout is intended to expand autopsy capacity and speed up evidence processing. The Oregon State Police Forensic Services Division and statewide facility planning reports both highlight the need to right-size lab capacity to match growing demand and cut into existing backlogs.
Next steps
In the near term, OSP will continue through design-build procurement and the city permitting process, while contractors and commissioning teams respond to the bid packages posted this spring. If procurement and permitting stay on track, the project is expected to move into site-preparation and mobilization ahead of the planned March 2027 groundbreaking, with progress updates reflected on the state’s procurement portal.
