Some concrete block walls that will form the new Athens Recreation Center are emerging from the spring soil off U.S. 31 near the Sportsplex.

“They are making progress; you can see it from a half mile away. It’s gonna be a nice building,” Director of Cemetery, Parks and Recreation Bert Bradford said Friday.

The 72,000-square-foot, two-story recreation center will have a three-lane walking/running track, three basketball courts, a lobby, offices and other amenities. The current 20,000-square-foot rec center was built in 1977 and is too small to serve the growing city, Mayor Ronnie Marks has said.

The new facility also comes with a $16.2 million price tag. City officials went to the bond market in 2018 to secure $20 million to pay for the recreation center and other projects. The City Council accepted a $14.2 million bid from First Team Construction of Auburn in October 2018 to construct the rec center.

The remainder will go to other costs, such as furnishings.

Record rainfall earlier this year affected the construction schedule.

“They are just working nearly in the mud to keep going,” Bradford said.

Despite this, he expects the facility to be open by next summer.

“We are possibly a little bit behind but we have poured some of the flatwork (concrete) and we are working on the block walls,” Bradford said. “We have block walls 25 feet in the air on the side where the gyms will be, and we have got slab poured where the offices will be, between the gyms and the current Sportsplex.”

He said after the walls are put up, the team will move on to iron work. The design and most of the engineering is complete, Bradford said.

The project calls for copious amounts of concrete block wall to form the walls of the gymnasiums. Bradford explained the concrete is not only cheap but holds up well against flying sports balls and helps with noise.

“When you have a multi-use building like this, you want to try to control the noise,” Bradford said, noting the cemetery office, fitness room and other offices will be in the same building.

He said the block and foundation work should be completed in the next couple of months. Once the roof is added, there will be a controlled environment for crews to finish the inside.