ELIZABETHTON — Despite the cold temperatures and fewer hours of daylight, the work has progressed smoothly on the $16 million consolidation project at the Tennessee Technology Center — Elizabethton. The work is being done to consolidate all of the classes at the main campus in the Watauga Industrial Park and moving out of the Herman Robinson campus.

Work is being done on the construction of two new buildings. The new Administration Building will house administrative offices, as well as classrooms for business systems technology, computer information technology and electricity/electronics.

The second building under construction is the Skills Building, which will house welding, pipefitting and plumbing, millwright skills and air conditioning and refrigeration.

A third building to be constructed will house the diesel-powered equipment and automotive technology classes.

Once the new buildings are constructed, the present building will be renovated to provide classrooms for practical nursing, certified nurse aide, an industry training lab and classrooms.

When construction is completed, there will be 95,000 square feet of training space that will allow 10 full-time training programs to be taught at one location.

The three new buildings are scheduled to be occupied in August. The renovation of the current building is scheduled to be completed in January.

Denark Construction Company of Knoxville is the construction manager/general contractor.