The Caterpillar Visitors Center holds a "topping out" ceremony at the construction site of the 50,000 square foot facility on Peoria's Riverfront. A similar ceremony was held at the adjacent Peoria Riverfront Museum project last month.
The ceremony is the placing of the final structural beam for the facility. Caterpillar Chairman and CEO Doug Oberhelman says everything is on schedule to be completed next October.
Oberhelman, Museum CEO Jim Richerson and Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis were among the dignitaries who signed the beam before it was hoisted into place.
"I can't wait to get it open...I can't wait to get it built and our customers in here," Oberhelman tells 1470 WMBD. "This is really exciting."
The Caterpillar Visitors Center will house a number of exhibits, including a theater inside a life size 24-foot tall, 380-ton Caterpillar 797 mining truck.
The Visitors Center and the adjacent Peoria Riverfront Museum are being built on what used to be called the "Sears Block."
"We looked at this hole for 15 years," says Oberhelman. "Suddenly half of it got filled and now the other half is going to be filled. It's a great thing, we're really happy about it."
Oberhelman says the company's dealers and guests the company brings into Peoria are already excited about the facility.
"People can't wait," Oberhelman says. "It's a building piece of our legacy and they will like this. We're going to put a big cornerstone in here with a lot of history in it. It will really be fun."
Caterpillar invested over $52-million into the Visitors Center and Peoria Riverfront Museum projects.
The Caterpillar Visitors Center will be open to the public. A similar "topping out" ceremony took place last month at the adjacent Peoria Riverfront Museum.
