New Carroll Campus
The main classroom building of the new WGTC Carroll Campus will greet visitors to Buffalo Creek Technology Park from its prominent location on the main roundabout.
West Georgia Technical College has called Carroll County home for over 50 years, and the next chapter is now being written with construction of WGTC’s new Carroll Campus.
The current West Georgia Technical College was created in 2009 from a merger of West Central Technical College and West Georgia Technical College. West Central Tech was founded in Carrollton in 1968 as Carroll County Vocational Technical School, and the original campus is still in use. Now, half a century later, West Georgia Tech includes seven counties, serving over 10,000 students annually. WGTC currently has a job placement rate of 99 percent. Around 80 percent of graduates are employed within their field of study.
In 2019, Governor Brian Kemp approved Georgia’s fiscal 2020 budget including $49.4 million for a new Carroll Campus. The 40-acre project, located off of the Highway 166 Bypass in the Buffalo Creek Technology Park, will allow WGTC to offer new and improved space and equipment designed specifically for student success. This investment in Carroll County will continue to strengthen the cooperative relationship between WGTC and its many workforce and corporate partners.
Be part of our progress!
The WGTC Foundation is supporting WGTC’s efforts to grow in the Carroll County community through The Campaign for West Georgia Technical College. For more information about how you can get involved in this project, please contact the WGTC Foundation.
July 21, 2022 – Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
West Georgia Technical College is pleased to announce a ribbon cutting celebration for the new Carroll campus.
The celebration will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 11, 2022 at 500 Technology Parkway, Carrollton, GA.
“The transition from over 50 years of history evolving from the original Carroll Tech to celebrating a bright, high-tech future at West Georgia Tech, in this amazing new $66 million-dollar campus, is nothing short of amazing,” said WGTC president Dr. Julie Post.
The new campus will include four buildings totaling almost 150,000 square feet and will replace the campus that has served Carroll county since 1968.
Members of the public are invited to attend the celebration. Campus tours will follow after the ceremony.
“We cannot wait to share our new home with all the community members and business partners we serve, and celebrate the excitement that has been building since Governor Kemp and the legislature generously approved funding for this project.”
December 21, 2021 – On-schedule for opening in 2022!
Construction is proceeding on schedule, with interior finishes and landscaping going in now. The general contractor expects a material completion date in late February which would be followed by cleanup, punch list and the installation of machinery and equipment. Labs in the Industrial Technology Center will include large equipment such as CNC machines, welding booths, and lifts that require additional time for arrival, installation and setup. Weather could also affect the completion of parking areas with final layers of asphalt. We hope to be completing these items and moving in furniture throughout the spring. At this point, we hope for a soft opening in the Summer, but we should certainly be fully open by the start of Fall Semester in August. We will be announcing a ribbon cutting event as these dates firm up.
July 27, 2021 – Interior Walls Going Up!
Work on West Georgia Technical College’s new nearly 150,000 square foot campus in Carroll County is on schedule and has moved inside – a good thing considering the recent rainy weather.
With roofs on and exteriors walls up on both large buildings, workers are framing, wiring, plumbing and even hanging drywall in the main classroom building which is scheduled slightly ahead of the technical and industrial building.
“We are extremely pleased with the pace of construction and the way the campus is shaping up,” WGTC President Dr. Julie Post said. “The weather earlier this year helped us out, and now with the roofs on and windows going in, the rain doesn’t affect them as much.”
Academic labs and classrooms spaces were planned with the help of current Carroll Campus faculty, Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Kristen Douglas said, and they are anxious to see their new space.
“With interior walls going up, we are now getting to the point where these spaces we envisioned and put on paper are really coming to life,” she said. “We have worked to make sure we are providing state-of-the-art instruction, and unlike some of the redesigned or modified space we use now, these new classrooms and labs are specifically designed and equipped to support the latest and best technical instruction from the start.”
The 77,000 square foot main classroom building is a three-story, gray, brick and steel structure which will house the enrollment center including offices for admissions and financial aid personnel, along with labs for paramedicine and certified nursing assistant programs on the first floor. Also on the first floor will be Adult Education, which prepares students to obtain their high school equivalency through either the GED Test or HiSET.
The student center, bookstore and library will occupy a large portion of the second floor, with classrooms, computer labs and faculty offices filling the rest.
The top floor will include a large cosmetology salon and labs for chemistry, criminal justice, engineering and early childhood development. General classrooms will be scattered on all floors.
This building will be prominent to technology park visitors, facing a large roundabout already present on site. A two-story glass façade will welcome guests. This building is visible from the Highway 166 Bypass.
At 62,000 square feet, the single-story technical and industrial building is larger than a football field. Interior walls are being erected inside to divide it into four quadrants of labs for trade and industrial programs including diesel equipment, welding, industrial systems, precision manufacturing and construction trades. A pedestrian bridge connecting the two buildings is in place over a natural greenspace and wetland area.
A third, smaller building will provide space for maintenance equipment and staff. Large parking areas surround the buildings, with 693 spots proposed. A new driver training range is being built for the commercial truck driving program.
Total project cost will come in around $66 million.
“We are so grateful for the support we have from the governor and general assembly, and also our local partners like the Carroll County Development Authority, which donated the property,” Post said. “This will be a campus Carroll County will be proud of, where we can bring people to show them the best of what we can offer students and our business and industry partners for their workforce development needs.”
The new campus – situated inside the Buffalo Creek Technology Park – is scheduled to open in 2022 and replace the College’s 52-year-old campus on Newnan Road. Programs currently offered at the Newnan Road campus will relocate to the new campus.
May 21, 2021 – Exterior Walls Going Up!
Visitors to the new campus site this week can see an exciting sign of progress — the exterior wall panels are being placed on the main building! Inside, most of the wall framing is complete and drywall is being installed. On the Trade and Industrial building, now that the structural steel is mostly complete, you can get a sense of the size of the building: huge! Roof decking is now going on, as well. A long, wooden pedestrian bridge has now been built connecting the two buildings over the natural wetland between them. It’s a cool feature we can’t wait for you to see! What’s next? Continued framing and drywall in the main building, continued exterior wall construction. For the T&I building, continued structural steel and decking work, prep and placement of concrete slab and curb and gutter for the commercial truck driving range. The new campus is really shaping up!
The gallery below shows the main administrative and classroom building, the Trade & Industrial Building, and the pedestrian bridge.
March 22, 2021 – First Building Topped Out!
The steel structure for the first building of the new West Georgia Technical College Carroll Campus was completed March 19 with the placement of the last beam – a signed steel girder hoisted into place high atop the three-story edifice.
Officials and guests from West Georgia Tech, the Technical College System of Georgia and local organizations joined general contractor McCarthy Construction and others for a brief signing ceremony prior to the lift.
“I’d like to thank everyone who has joined us today for your work in getting us to this point,” Interim WGTC President Pat Hannon said. “We have a great group of employees, the people working at the system office, our contractors, our architect, our legislators – thank you for each one for all the hard work. We would not be where we are today without your support.”
West Georgia Technical College Interim President Pat Hannon welcomed guests at a Topping Out event last week celebrating the completion of the steel structure at the first building of WGTC’s new Carroll Campus.
Guests at the event included Technical College System of Georgia Commissioner Greg Dozier, State Property Officer Marty Smith, local county commissioners and representatives the boards of WGTC and the WGTC Foundation.
The new campus located in the Buffalo Creek Technology Park on the Carrollton Bypass will replace West Georgia Tech’s 52-year old campus on Newnan Road in three buildings totaling almost 150,000 square feet.
The building topped out last week is the main classroom building, a three-story brick and steel structure which will house the enrollment center including offices for admissions and financial aid personnel, along with labs for paramedicine and certified nursing assistant programs on the first floor. Also on the first floor will be Adult Education, which prepares students to obtain their high school equivalency through either the GED Test or HiSET.
WGTC celebrated the placement of the last piece of structural steel on the first building of its new Carroll Campus March 19. The new campus is located in the Buffalo Creek Technology Park near the west end of the Carrollton Bypass.
The student center, bookstore and library will occupy a large portion of the second floor, with classrooms, computer labs and faculty offices filling the rest.
The top floor will include a large cosmetology salon and labs for chemistry, criminal justice, engineering and early childhood development. General classrooms will be scattered on all floors.
This building will be prominent to technology park visitors, facing a large roundabout already present on site. A two-story glass façade will welcome guests to the gray brick facility. The steel structure is visible already from the Highway 166 Bypass.
Foundation work is continuing on the large, single-story technical and industrial building of almost 62,000 square feet located behind the main building. This second building will house labs fo
WGTC staff, invited guests and construction contractors signed the final beam of the first building on WGTC’s new Carroll Campus March 19 before it was lifted into place atop the three-story building which is now visible from the Highway 166 Bypass in Carrollton.
r trades and industrial programs including diesel equipment, welding, industrial systems, precision manufacturing and construction trades. A pedestrian bridge will connect the two buildings.
A third smaller building will provide space for maintenance equipment and staff. Large parking areas surround the buildings, with 693 spots proposed. A new driver training range will be constructed to support the commercial truck driving program.
“Every week, we have all observed this campus coming out of the ground and the excitement grows every time we share the progress,” Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Kristen Douglas said. “The faculty and staff have had true ownership in this project because of the intentional solicitation of their input from the beginning and throughout the project.”
Douglas said instructors at the current Carroll Campus have been heavily involved with the planning and design of new classroom and lab spaces, with the goal of the campus to prioritize the academic areas on the new campus. She said one office on the current campus has been outfitted with sample furniture to get faculty and staff feedback on the type and style of furniture that is needed.
The campus sits on about 40 acres of the Technology Park donated by the Carroll County Development Authority. The campus site will fill the left side of the Technology Park, if facing it from the Highway 166 Bypass. The Carroll County Development Authority retains the right side of the Park and continues to market it for possible development.
Buffalo Creek marks the extreme left of the Park, behind the campus site. A portion of the Park there is in a floodplain and preserved as wetlands.
The new campus is scheduled to open in 2022 and replace the College’s 52-year-old campus on Newnan Road. Programs currently offered at the Newnan Road campus will relocate when the new campus opens.
February 8, 2021 – Steel going up!
After months of site work, McCarthy Construction has the first steel beams erected! These photos, taken February 2, show the steel structure for the west side of the main administration and classroom building, and the remainder of the foundation of the building, where work on the slab continues.
Meanwhile, at the Technical & Industrial Building, work continues installing the geopiers that will anchor the huge, single-story building into the red Georgia clay.
December 18, 2020 – HAAS Foundation names new WGTC machining lab
The new Carroll Campus of West Georgia Technical College has received a $250,000 boost thanks to the Gene Haas Foundation.
The grant will be used toward construction of the Gene Haas Precision Machining and Manufacturing Lab, named for the founder and owner of Hass Automation, Inc., America’s leading builder of computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools.
The Gene Haas Foundation has given the West Georgia Technical College Foundation a $250,000 grant toward construction of a new machining lab on the College’s new Carroll Campus, now under construction. Receiving the check were WGTC Board of Directors member Bill Stone, Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Kristen Douglas, Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness John Parton, WGTC Foundation President Greg Wright, WGTC Foundation Executive Director Kelsey Jones, WGTC Foundation Trustee Mark Foster, Carrollton Mayor Betty Cason, WGTC President Dr. Scott Rule and Director of Public Relations Ben Chambers. The new campus is scheduled for completion in 2022.
“On behalf of the West Georgia Technical College Foundation, we are deeply humbled by the generosity of the Gene Haas Foundation with this lead gift at the new Carroll Campus,” WGTC Foundation President Greg Wright said. “This investment will allow the College to provide machine tool technology students with a state-of-the-art facility – one that we know will bring great pride to Gene Haas and the Gene Haas Foundation.”
The lab will be located in the Technical & Industrial Building on the College’s new Carroll Campus under construction now in the Buffalo Creek Technology Park just off the Carrollton bypass.
“Having used Haas machines and tools in our machine tool program for years, we are so pleased to have been recognized by the Gene Haas Foundation as a college worthy of naming our program’s training space the Gene Haas Precision Machining and Manufacturing Lab,” WGTC President Dr. Scott Rule said. “With the generous donation from the Gene Haas Foundation, the lab at our new Carroll Campus will not only reflect what can be found in industry, but will enable us to build the best training facilities available for this purpose anywhere.”
Gene Haas is also known as co-owner of Stewart-Haas Racing which competes in NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series, K&N Pro Series West and the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series.
Rule said the new Carroll Campus should be complete and ready for students during 2022. The College will be relocating all operations from its current Newnan Road campus.
WGTC Foundation Executive Director Kelsey Jones said the $250,000 donation is the first naming gift of a $5 million capital campaign for the WGTC Foundation. For more information about how to give, visit https://www.westgatech.edu/discover-wgtc/foundation/giving-initiatives-at-wgtc/.
The Haas Foundation’s primary goal is to build skills in the machining industry by supporting CNC machine technology students. Haas Automation operates a 1 million square foot manufacturing facility in Oxnard, California.
The new Carroll Campus is located in the Buffalo Creek Technology Park in Carrollton.
