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WINONA LAKE - The community will have the opportunity to celebrate a significant point in the construction of Grace College's Orthopedic Capital Center.
The college will hold a beam-topping ceremony Friday from 10 to 11 a.m. at the construction site on Wooster Road in Winona Lake across from the college's Morgan Library.
The Grace College Board of Trustees and Grace College President Dr. Ronald Manahan are inviting the public to attend the ceremony.
If it rains, the ceremony will be cancelled to keep the project on schedule.
Weigand Construction, Fort Wayne, is the contractor for the project and employees will erect the beam at the ceremony Friday.
The beam topping is a construction tradition that signifies a project has reached its highest point safely and on schedule, according to project manager Jeremy Ringger.
"The project has gone well and we have hit a milestone and are ready to erect the steel beam," Ringger said.
He said concrete foundation has been completed and the interior masonry walls were installed in September and should be completed by the end of October.
"We are still early in the project, but everything is going on schedule," Ringger said.
The college is inviting those who have supported the projects with gifts and prayers to stop by the campus today through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and sign the beam. It will be displayed on the brick patio area between McClain Hall and Philathea Hall.
Construction on the $9.1 million, 60,000-square-foot building began in April.
The building will be equipped for 2,800 and will be used for Grace chapel and sporting events as well as local concerts, business seminars and trade shows.
Six meeting rooms will be located inside the building, the largest seating 200 people. Catering services, wireless Internet capabilities and an adjustable stage inside the gymnasium/auditorium also will be available.
Orthopedic companies Biomet, Zimmer and DePuy each donated $1 million for construction of the center.
The center is projected to be completed by May, when the college hopes the first event inside the building will be the 2007 graduation.
