Project Highlights

Location: Columbia Falls, MT
Project Size: 88,000 SF
Completed: 2022

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Glacier Gateway Elementary had served Columbia Falls since 1940, with an addition tacked on in 1955, by the time the district decided it was overdue for replacement. As Superintendent Dave Wick put it, "it is time for an upgrade." The project was funded through the same $37 million bond Columbia Falls voters approved in 2019 that also funded improvements at Ruder Elementary.

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Swank Enterprises won the contract through competitive bidding, submitting the lowest qualifying bid at $21.97 million against a $22 million budget — well under the $26.45 million bid from the next-closest competitor, while two other regional contractors declined to bid at all. The board awarded the contract in April 2021, and crews broke ground the following month on an 88,000-square-foot replacement building, demolishing the old school's north wing while preserving its south wing and two gymnasiums, long valued by local youth sports.

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Crews delivered the finished school to the district in December 2022. For Swank's team, the project carried extra weight: as project manager Travis Lake noted, workers wanted to be part of it because it had been so long since Columbia Falls had built a new school. That showed at opening, with teachers like Jane Dews calling the move "amazing" and Trista Schaeffer saying, "The building's beautiful, it's just going to be a fresh new start for everyone." The finished building added a new multipurpose gymnasium, a dedicated cafeteria finally separated from gym space, an auditorium, an expanded library, and updated classrooms and technology throughout.

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