Fletcher secures design-build team for campus

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Fletcher Technical Community College will mark the start of 2011 with a celebration of its 60th anniversary and by breaking ground on a new facility in January to house a part of their enrollment of 2,400 students.


The Louisiana Community and Technical College System Facilities Corporation awarded the design-build team of Thompson Construction Co. Inc. and Duplantis Design Group the contract to build a new campus development for Fletcher and an initial pre-construction meeting was conducted last Wednesday.

The new campus development will be located on 32 acres of state-owned property along La. Highway 311 near U.S. Highway 90 in Schriever. In time, according to the LCTCS, that facility will expand to cover more than 74 acres. The initial project is scheduled for completion before the 2012 fall semester.


This campus development will feature an 89,000 square foot complex that will house a new library, academic resource learning center, computer labs, common rooms, meeting rooms, and classrooms for arts and sciences, business programs, drafting, design, and integrated production technologies.


According to Fletcher Chancellor Travis Lavigne, the new facility will not replace other campus locations but will offer expansion for additional programs to handle the approximately 20 percent student growth rate per fall semester.

“As [the 29th] fastest growing post secondary educational institutions in the nation, Fletcher’s new campus development will allow the college to broaden its course offerings by providing expanded educational and training opportunities to the citizens of our service area. We are linking the needs of business with quality education and training to further enhance economic growth in our region,” Lavigne said.


“You have to remember, we are a technical community college, so we have a dual mission. We train individuals directly for employment [as] machinists and in design drafting, diesel marine technology, welding, electricians, etc. But we also have another major component, which is the two-year associate degrees and we’re working on associate of arts and associate of science transfer degrees,” Lavigne said.

Fletcher’s $19 million development is part of Act 391, which is a facilities project that was passed by the state legislature in 2007. It includes 23 projects for 14 community and technical colleges as part of a $173.7 million bond package.

The design-build approach was selected for the Fletcher development because of its cost controls and time effectiveness. Design-build teams blend architect and builder working together on a project from start to finish.

“We want a high quality product and we want it done on time,” said LCTCS Facilities Corporation President Stephen Smith.

Lavigne said that Fletcher programs have evolved to meet the economic base of the region and this campus expansion will only help increase that influence.

“There is an emphasis in Louisiana because of the development of the community college system over the last 10 or 12 years in which you see a greater percentage of students beginning their education at either a technical college campus or a technical college and transferring to a university,” Lavigne said. “We’re one of the only [colleges] in the state that deals with integrated production technology [with] deepwater oil and gas exploration as approved by the major oil companies,” he said.

Fletcher Technical Community College began as a trade school in 1951.