Midlands Technical College broke ground Thursday on a new outdoor welding lab at its Airport Campus, a 7,000-square-foot facility designed to put students through jobsite simulations and pipefitting work alongside traditional welding instruction. The project carries a $2.4 million price tag and is expected to be finished by fall 2027.
The lab will sit adjacent to the college's existing Welding Technology Center, according to the Lexington County Chronicle, and is meant to expand hands-on training by simulating real-world working conditions outdoors rather than confining every welding activity to an indoor bay. MTC President Greg Little said the project is part of a broader push, calling it the largest expansion of skilled trades and advanced manufacturing programs in the college's history, per the Chronicle's report. The lab will feature an open-concept layout built around a steel mezzanine design.
A $1.1 Million Push From Truist
The project got a boost from a $1.1 million grant from the Truist Foundation, according to the Chronicle. Chris Zimmer, market president for Truist, spoke at the groundbreaking and connected the investment to his own family history, saying his father supported their household through pipefitting and welding work. Zimmer said skilled trades can create stability and open doors for the next generation, and the Chronicle reported that the Truist Foundation describes itself as committed to career pathways and building better lives and communities.
Ray Thomas, dean of MTC's School of Advanced Manufacturing and Skilled Trades and School of Business, said demand for welding training remains strong in the area, according to the Chronicle. The college says the new lab will help it serve more students and expand applied welding and pipefitting training, while also offering customized training opportunities for industry partners looking to upskill workers on-site.
What's Actually Getting Built
Procurement records paint a detailed picture of what contractors are putting up. According to a project manual published by Midlands Technical College, the lab is planned as a pre-engineered metal building with a concrete masonry unit base, metal wall panels and a steel-grate mezzanine. The same document says the scope includes steel-grate stairs, an overhead crane, exhaust fans, extension of the campus's medium-voltage power to the building, power distribution for individual welding stations and lighting systems.
Site work will include clearing, grading and construction of a stormwater retention pond, per a listing on BidNet Direct. The project is located at MTC's Airport Campus at 1260 Lexington Drive in West Columbia, the college's project manual states, and bids for the work were due Aug. 13, 2026, at 2 p.m. The documents list Studio 2LR as the project architect, with Gene Bell identified as the architect's representative, and specify a design-bid-build delivery method under a single prime contract. Contractors are required to substantially complete the work within 360 calendar days of the official notice to proceed.
Building on a Recent Expansion
The new outdoor lab is going up right next to a facility that only recently got its own major upgrade. MTC's Welding Technology Center opened in 2021 and now includes 64 welding bays, the result of a $4.5 million capital investment, the college has said. That expansion added 19 bays to the Airport Campus total, along with multipurpose classrooms, a fabrication area and exterior teaching stations, according to the college.
Architecture firm McMillan Pazdan Smith, which worked on that earlier project, says the expansion was designed to accommodate growing demand for skilled welders. MTC is a two-year comprehensive community college with six campuses serving Richland, Lexington and Fairfield counties, and it also operates a smaller welding center on its Fairfield Campus with 12 welding stations, which the college says it is now upgrading.
Filling a Persistent Labor Gap
The investment comes as regional employers continue to struggle to find enough trained welders. MTC has said employers face roughly three dozen welding vacancies per month across Fairfield, Lexington and Richland counties, and that its Welding Technology Center alone is built to train 150 welders annually. The college's Associate of Applied Science Degree in Welding Technology, a six-semester program, is described by MTC as the first college degree in welding offered anywhere in South Carolina.
Once complete, the outdoor lab will give students a space to prepare for welding and related-industry careers through pipefitting activities and jobsite simulations that more closely mirror actual work environments than a traditional indoor shop. For a region where open welding jobs have outpaced the supply of trained workers, the new facility is meant to widen the pipeline rather than simply add capacity.
