After gaining the community’s approval in the November referendum, the construction of new facilities is set to begin in July.  Though Madison Area Technical College is still in the long process of gaining approvals at the city and state levels, many are optimistic about the future.

The proposed projects include an allied health center, a new advanced and sustainable manufacturing wing at Truax, and remodeling at regional campuses.  The health center and manufacturing wing are farthest along in the approval process, according to Mike Stark, director of facilities services.  However, there are multiple issues that have to be worked out.

“[Madison has] pretty strict requirements on construction that we have to work out yet,” Stark said.

He also described the current renderings of the building as “preliminary.”  According to Stark the issues left to consider are mostly cosmetic details.  He stressed that while most of the choices left, such as paint color, have very little cost consequence, they are key in the presentation of our new facilities. Students and faculty were not totally satisfied with the Truax building when it was built 30 years ago. This is something they hope to avoid with the new construction.

“On any project or new building you have to start with a concept and that concept is always being tweaked and modified to get what your true vision is and we’re just not there yet,” Stark said. “That takes some time.”

After the projects are approved, the college must have finalized plans.  From there the project goes out to bid.  It is a process that Stark said could take several months.

“There’s still a lot of work,” Stark said.  “The good news is we’re still in January, but time goes fast.”

Once ground is broken for the project, the allied health building will take about 15 months to complete, according to Stark.  The additional wing on the Truax building is a slightly smaller project and will take less time.

The other part of the project that is being considered at this time is additions to regional campuses.  Reedsburg and Watertown campuses will have the most significant additions and remodeling of the bunch.  Portage and Fort Atkinson campuses will also be expanded, but on a smaller scale.  Although, the planning for these expansions is much less developed, Stark said things could change quickly.

“The rules and regulations that Madison has for construction are far different than those other cities,” Stark explained.  “We could easily catch up to the planning process and potentially those projects could either start at the same time or even before the health building could start or the new wing to the north of us could start.”

There remain many unknowns in the college’s process of expanding.  The number one unknown is still obtaining approvals.  However, Stark, who oversees much of the process, said he believes that the school is on track with the job our community entrusted it to do.

“It’s a big job,” Stark said.  “You don’t get many opportunities with a referendum of this size to put this many facilities together and it’s really a big undertaking for this college so we want to make sure we do it right and do it in a timely fashion.”