North Reading’s Columbia Construction Co. has been awarded a project by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) to serve as the construction manager for a new laboratory.

Construction on the 27,000-square-foot Laboratory for Ocean Sensors and Observing Systems (LOSOS) in Woods Hole is expected to begin in March. The project, which costs around $10 million, is expected to be completed in June 2012.

The building will house laboratory and office space for the NSF-sponsored Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI).

The structure will also include laboratory and office space for the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO), an underwater research facility and test site constructed and operated by WHOI; the Ocean Bottom Seismometer Instrument Pool (OBSIP), an NSF-funded facility providing instrumentation in support of marine geology, seismology and geodynamics research; and the Environmental Sample Processor Lab (ESP), where procedures will be performed for genetic identification of marine organisms and for clarifying their role in biogeochemical cycles.

Cambridge firm Ellenzweig is the architect.