With steel beams in place, the Defense Information School's ongoing expansion project is taking shape.
The three-phase project, which will add more than 100,000 square feet to the facility, is on time and should be completed by the summer of 2015.
Officials broke ground on the large-scale expansion in January 2013.
"We're working every day," said Mike Griffith, director of logistics at DINFOS. "It's going really good."
Griffith said the project was necessary as the school's enrollment has increased 30 percent over recent years. The current trailer classrooms, located across from Gaffney Fitness Center, were installed to house the influx of students while the expansion is completed.
DINFOS, located at Fort Meade since 1995, trains service members and civilians in public affairs, broadcasting and visual information. The project will allow the school to accommodate 3,500 students -- nearly 1,000 more than before.
The project is being conducted in three phases, the first of which was the construction of a new parking lot on the south side of the school. The second phase includes renovation of the 60,000 square feet of the current DINFOS space.
"When we found out we had increased by 30 percent, we realized that some of the classrooms would have to go from 18 to 24-person classrooms," Griffith said.
"We have to make some of these lecture rooms bigger, so some of the internal renovations needed to be done to fit that ... basically making more room, making more space and reconfiguring classrooms."
Griffith said the renovated space should be handed back to the school in the coming months.
Once DINFOS has control over the area, it will need about another month to install furniture and various equipment such as cables before it will be open for classes.
The renovated area should be open by the summer, Griffith said.
Phase 3 is the construction of a three-story addition that will add nearly 80,000 square feet of classrooms and administrative spaces.
The approximately $30 million expansion is being built on the side of the facility near the parking lot, and will be attached to the current school by a glass atrium.
Construction should be completed by December. At that point DINFOS staff members will add their finishing touches and will open the addition.
"We're about a year and a half out from final completion where we are actually teaching and bringing the folks out in the trailers back in," Griffith said.
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