TOPEKA | It's official. Kansas has been selected as the winner of the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility.

The Department of Homeland Security's Directorate for Science and Technology published today its record of decision that confirmed a December decision to award the project to Kansas.

Sites in Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas were the other finalists. The project replaces an aging federal lab at Plum Island, N.Y. Scientists will be researching and developing new vaccines for deadly foreign animal and other biological threats.

Construction is expected to begin in 2010 at a site near Kansas State University in Manhattan. The lab will cost at least $450 million in federal funds.

Officials in Texas are considering a legal challenge to the decision.