NORMAL - Heartland Community College's Phase II campus expansion is taking shape, with the first of six buildings slated for completion in September and work under way on three others.

Rod Justus, project manager with general contractor Williams Bros., said an abundance of spring rain slowed work slightly, but hasn't changed the goal of having the project ready by 2010. "It's been crazy. Some days we've had 2 inches (of water) out here," he said.

The college's receiving and storage building is nearly done, and the campus lab preschool should open for spring semester, said Justus. Workers also are readying foundations for two buildings.

"They're all happening in sequence," said Rob Widmer, Heartland's business and finance vice president. "Taking a drive around campus, you can see work on each site. There are a lot of things going on in a lot of locations," he told the college's board of trustees earlier this month.

To achieve a better price, Heartland developed the work as a multi-facility bid, said Widmer. Costs are covered through locally funded general revenue bonds, which the board approved issuing in spring 2007.

Williams Bros. earned the $50.4 million contract in late February and began work in April.

After the Heartland trustees gave the thumbs-up to the project in spring 2007, officials estimated the total project cost at $60 million. Of that, $45 million was set aside for construction; $11 million for planning, design and furnishing buildings; and about $3.2 million to create athletic fields.

Now, the fields' money instead will go toward a private stadium for minor league baseball.

Anywhere from 50 to 100 construction workers, representing seven contractors, are at the site on any given day, said Justus.

Workers finished the structural beams, and now are focused on the roof of the receiving building and internal drywall, he said.

The lab child care center has differing roof angles, exposed structural roof timbers and in-floor radiant heat tubes. Workers are drilling wells for the geothermal heating and cooling of the center.

"It's probably one of the most complicated buildings we're doing on this project," said Justus.

The freestanding site nearly doubles the capacity of the current center, located in the southern corner of the Student Commons building. The new site will have spots for 72 children, said Darlene Wills, center director. She said about 70 percent of the enrolled students are children of Heartland students.

Besides two additional infant/toddler rooms, the new facility will include offices and classrooms for early childhood education faculty and staff, a kitchen and laundry room, and outdoor classroom areas.

Even with work in full swing at the center and the receiving building, crews are taking first steps for the next two parts of the project: The foundation for the Community Education Center; and excavation for the Instructional Commons North classroom building, said Justus. Both should be complete by fall 2009.

The final touch comes for a spring 2010 finish - a new wing to east campus' Student Commons building, and the construction of a Student Fitness and Recreation Center.