The Technical and Industrial Building at Southern Regional Technical College is progressing toward a 2026 opening date. It will house a variety of crucial programs aimed at equipping students with the skills and expertise needed to excel in today's competitive workforce.

MOULTRIE – Southern Regional Technical college is continuing to grow by leaps and bounds with the addition of the new Technical and Industrial building on its campus.

The 70,000-square-foot building is a welcome addition to the SRTC campus on Veterans Parkway and will house a variety of programs. The programs are to equip students with the skills and expertise needed to excel in today’s competitive workforce.

These programs include air conditioning technology, automotive technology, auto collision and repair. Also, carpentry, electrical systems technology, industrial systems, welding and joining technology, and a new diesel equipment technology program.

Jim Glass, president of Southern Regional Technical College, spoke about the time he first came to Moultrie, in 2003. He said, he was driving by looking at Lasseter Tractor Company and at the large sized facility that it had. He said he questioned as to why SRTC did not have a diesel mechanics course at the college. So, he is quite excited to now be able to offer the diesel equipment technology program, he said.

The Technical and Industrial building will house state of the art technology. One is in the diesel lab where they are installing a heavy overhead crane. They will now be able to lift those big diesel engines and transmissions. They are installing special ventilation systems for the automotive and welding labs. Plus, they are installing paint booths in the auto collision labs.

Glass said, “You know, when you talk about technology, we have to have the best technology to be able to train our graduates to go to work because when they get out there, they’re going to be using the best technology, so that that’s our goal for this building, as well.”

Many of the industrial programs are in high demand for trained workers. With this new technical and industrial building, they will be able to train more graduates to be able to go out and meet these demands. With the new building, he said, they hope to increase enrollment for these programs. They are up about 19% as of right now.

According to Glass, the building is right on target for where it should be at this time. They have started laying out the internal area of the building, painting, choosing furniture, flooring, colors, etc.

He said they have meetings every two weeks with the architects and contractors to see where they are at or where they need to be and to make sure they are staying on track. They take tours and look around to see what it all looks like, he said. As of right now, the building looks to be at or under budget by the time of its completion, Glass said.

As for when they expect it to be finished, Glass said, “We think it will be completed as of January of ’26, and probably we’ll start to move in. We will be able to start classes, hopefully, in the summer of ’26. So we’re looking at a year from now actually.”

They have made tremendous progress, but there is still a lot to be done on the vast building, he said.

Glass said, “The building is so impressive, I can’t wait for people to be able to really see what the finished product is going to be, and it is something that that we’re going to be extremely proud of all of and that Southwest Georgia can be proud of too.”

As for what is to become of the Industrial Drive campus that currently houses the industrial programs, school officials are researching and looking into different avenues. Glass said, they will do what is best for that campus.