After years of planning, Lincoln Trail College’s technology center is finally on track to becoming a reality.
LTC President Zahi Atallah announced Wednesday that a design contract for the $12-million project has been awarded and plans call for the facility to be ready to open in early 2025.
“We couldn’t be more excited about this project,” Atallah said.
“This is an absolutely amazing investment. The timing couldn’t be any better when it comes to our region, when our country, in particular, is reeling from a dire need for workforce development.”
The state awarded the contract to the architectural firm Graham & Hyde Inc. for the building. Design work on the building will begin this spring. Construction bids should be sought next year.
“We’re really hoping that we will be able to start holding classes in the technology center as soon as the spring semester of 2025,” Atallah said.
 “Thanks to the assistance of the State of Illinois, we’re going to be able to do great things for our college and our employers.”
The tech center will house several of LTC’s technical programs like process technology, broadband telecom and welding. The center will also house a new university partnership center that will allow area residents to earn degrees from select four-year colleges without leaving home.
“I can’t overstate the importance of this project to Lincoln Trail College,” Atallah said. “We’ll be able to bring all of our programs right here to our campus and we’ll be able to better align everything we do.
“This will also allow us to create the university partnership center which is aimed at providing transfer opportunities without needing to travel away from Lincoln Trail,” he added.
The tech center is the latest in new projects at LTC.
Statesmen Park kicked off a revitalization of the campus in 2019. The athletic complex added 11 acres to the campus and features two soccer fields and will eventually house a softball diamond.
Lackey Music Hall opened recently and features a mid-sized lecture hall and state-of-the-art practice rooms. Renovations of the Rowland-Nicholas Natatorium began in the fall and the Crawford County Recreation Center is set to break ground this spring.
“This project means growth in a lot of ways,” Atallah said. “It will mean jobs in the area when the building is constructed. It will mean opportunities to invest in new technologies.
“Moreover, through the partnership that we have been building and we’re going to be strengthening with our local employers, it means that the expansion plans that have been put on the back burner because they can’t find people or they can’t train them are now going to be put on the front and they’re going to be accelerated. The impact of the technology center on this area is going to be huge.”
Atallah added the center will bring new energy to the college.
“Having that new facility will be invigorating and energizing to Lincoln Trail College. It’s not just a new chapter, it’s in my opinion, a two-point-oh version of Lincoln Trail.”