Fort Gordon’s Signal Towers once dominated the landscape with the building in view for some distance, but no more.
According to photos posted at the U.S. Cyber Center of Excellence Facebook page April 5, little remains of the iconic structure which is being brought down to make way for a new campus to train soldiers.
The new campus will allow us to integrate our current course requirement and future course requirement at a much faster pace,” said Dwayne Williams, U.S. Army Signal School deputy commandant, in a March 28 article at the U.S. Army website.
“We are leveraging cloud technologies now, virtual technologies, that eliminate the requirement for hardware purchases in order to make changes to courses. We will have classrooms that give us more flexibility in terms of being able to keep up with technology at the rate that it’s evolving and facilitate us training at the optimal training time during the day as opposed to having to train soldiers on three shifts.”
Constructed in 1968, the Signal Towers building was dedicated Aug. 15, 1970, and was in use until July 31, 2021. The 800-seat Alexander Hall as well as four academic buildings are also being removed to make way for the new construction.
A memorialization ceremony was held in April 2022.
“By construction’s end, the new cyber campus will feature a walkable, college-like campus with state-of-the-art classrooms, robust communications capabilities, and powerful heating/air conditioning (essential when working with large computer servers and heat-generating equipment). It will include four new buildings and eight modernized facilities at an estimated cost of $924 million,” according to an April 25, 2022 article at the U.S. Army website.
The new campus is set for completion in 2033.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
