Tri-Tech Skills Center’s $45.5 million Modernization Nears the Finish Line
Kennewick School District’s core modernization of Tri-Tech Skills Center is on track to wrap this month, closing out a state-funded project that’s been reshaping the region’s premier career and technical education campus since construction began in July 2025.
The scope
The $45.5 million project modernizes the original 66,000-square-foot core of the Tri-Tech facility, built in 1981 and never substantially updated since. Work covers electrical, plumbing, roofing, and mechanical infrastructure, along with energy and life-safety improvements and a full reconfiguration of instructional spaces. Two newer additions to the campus, built in 2007 and 2020, aren’t part of the scope. Steel beams for the 66,000-square-foot core are now in place, and the project remains on schedule for completion this month, according to the district.
Why it matters for the trades
Tri-Tech isn’t a typical high school — it’s a regional cooperative technical center serving roughly 1,100 juniors and seniors from eight Tri-Cities-area school districts: Kennewick, Pasco, Richland, Finley, Columbia-Burbank, Kiona-Benton City, North Franklin, and Prosser. Students attend part-time while finishing their diplomas elsewhere, training tuition-free in more than 20 career-connected programs. The construction and skilled-trades-relevant offerings include welding, auto body and systems technology, diesel technology, pre-electrical, and firefighting/EMS — a direct pipeline into the trades that NW Construction News’ readers are hiring from.
Director Paul Randall framed the renovation’s value in blunt terms: the goal is for students to graduate, finish their program, and step into a career path without taking on student debt.
What’s changing on campus
Beyond infrastructure, the modernization reconfigures lab and shop spaces for programs including welding, automotive, diesel, dental assisting, and digital arts and filmmaking. The redesign also sets up capacity for potential future program additions in pharmacy tech and HVAC/plumbing — a notable detail given how tight HVAC and plumbing labor markets have been running across Oregon and Washington. Seven programs were temporarily relocated to the district’s Fruitland Building during construction and are scheduled to return to the main campus for the 2026–27 school year, which begins with registration that opened back in January.
The funding picture
The project draws on Washington’s state capital budget, with support from local lawmakers and the City of Kennewick — a reminder that skills-center capacity in the Tri-Cities is being treated as public infrastructure in its own right, not just a school district line item. For contractors and trade employers watching the regional labor pipeline, a fully modernized Tri-Tech campus reopening for the 2026–27 school year is worth tracking as a near-term signal of where the next wave of skilled entrants may come from.
Source URL: https://www.tricitiesbusinessnews.com/articles/expansion-at-tri-tech-skills-center
Source URL: https://tritech.ksd.org/
Source URL: https://www.ksd.org/tri-tech-modernization
Source URL: https://www.fox41yakima.com/tri-tech-skills-center-undergoes-major-45-5m-renovation/
