CWU Breaks Ground on Major Projects

Central Washington University formally broke ground on four construction projects during a special ceremony yesterday on the Ellensburg campus. CWU President Jim Gaudino says the work, to all be completed by 2019, will transform the school’s north campus. It will include new artificial turf and lighting at Tomlinson Stadium, home to the university’s football, rubgy, and women’s soccer teams. The facility has not undergone this level of transformation since it opened in 1959.

"It will be in time for our first night football game which will be September 29th versus West Texas A&M. And this is something that I've been waiting nine years to say; Kickoff is at 6:00 p.m. It's about $6 million, all private donations. No state funding going into that project."

It will include building a new student-funded, 402-bed residence hall, to be completed by 2019.

"That is also the first project to use a progressive design and build delivery system. Usually you go through a two-year planning process, a two-year designing process and two-year construction process. This compresses that design, build into what, it'll be within that two-year window that we'll do both of those things that took us four years to do."

The new projects at CWU also include construction of a new dining facility, and campus recreation expansion featuring a new track and field complex, which the university’s track-and-field team will share with the university’s club sports and intramural teams.