Building up Big Bend Construction on new workforce education building could start by 2018

MOSES LAKE — The construction schedule will depend on funding, but as of now the plan is to open the workforce education building at Big Bend Community College in 2020. Preliminary plans for the new building were delivered last week.

The new building, also called the professional-technical building, will house BBCC’s technical training programs, with the exception of aviation mechanics. That will be housed in a separate building next to its current location on the flight line, said Linda Schoonmaker, the college’s vice president of finance and administration.

The workforce education building will be built on Northeast Bolling Street, across from the existing ATEC center. Workshops for the automotive, welding, fabrication, maintenance mechanics and industrial systems technology programs will be located on the first floor, with computer science and transfer-degree STEM programs on the second floor. Four classrooms will be part of the first floor.

The auto mechanics program will have separate workshops for first-year and second-year students. Currently the Moses Lake High School auto mechanic program shares space with the BBCC program but Schoonmaker said that agreement will end when the program moves to the new building.

There’s a sort of third floor, she said, where the building’s electrical and mechanical systems will be housed.

The building – more than 70,000 square feet – and the outdoor instruction spaces associated with the programs will take up the entire lot, Schoonmaker said. A new parking lot will be developed on College Parkway, behind an existing parking lot.

The front entrance will open onto Bolling Street, and will feature two classroom-meeting rooms with doors that will allow equipment to be moved in and out.

College officials haven’t yet decided how to handle pedestrian traffic on Bolling Street, Schoonmaker said. Currently Bolling Street dead-ends at the baseball field, and college officials haven’t decided whether to close it permanently at its intersection with Northeast 28th Avenue, or close it while classes are in session.

College officials decided it made more sense to leave the aviation maintenance program along the flight line, Schoonmaker said. That building will be prefabricated, with a metal-and-brick exterior. It will have three classrooms along with workshop space.

The state’s contribution for construction would be about $35 million, and the project is included Gov. Jay Inslee’s budget proposal, Schoonmaker said. But the proposal’s ultimate fate is up to the Washington Legislature, which is still working to come up with the 2017-19 budget.

Under the current schedule, the college’s administrators and trustees will approve a design in April, with the goal of putting it out to bid in December. The bid would be awarded in winter 2018, with construction beginning about March 2018.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.