With so many new projects underway to enhance the campus, fluorescent orange seems to be the new color of Weber State, with cones, hard hats and construction barrels as far as the eye can see.

Summer semester students may have noticed the enormous amount of construction around campus, including the new Tracy Hall Science Center, deep water wells near the stadium and the renovation of both the Wattis Business Building and the Stewart Library.

The construction of Tracy Hall seems to be the most prominent, the new science facility dominating the center of campus by the clock tower and Elizabeth Hall.

The construction was scheduled to take two years ad ran on schedule. Allison Barlow Hess said in a statement on the Weber State news page, “The doors will be open to students fall semester 2016.”

The building will house laboratories and classrooms for the science departments.

Additional construction projects include the digging of geothermal wells. The new wells near the stadium are an attempt to make campus more environmentally friendly.

“Large drilling rigs are boring holes deep in the earth on the north side of Weber State University’s Stewart Stadium,” Hess said in a statement, “to create a system to heat and cool university buildings more efficiently and cost effectively.”

Also underway are the in-depth remodeling of the Stewart Library and the Wattis Building. During the short renovation time, the faculty of the Wattis Building will be relocated to other facilities on campus and at Weber State University Davis. The building is scheduled to reopen after Aug. 14 of this year.

The Stewart Library, however, requires a much lengthier renovation time.

According to another WSU press release, the south wing will be remodeled first, while the north end stays open. Later, the south end will re-open while the north wing is under construction “with the intent to re-open the entire library in the summer of 2017.”

Students may still use the main entrance facing the Shepherd Union.

These campus upgrades will improve the energy and efficiency of the campus while providing safe and comfortable accommodations for school functions. Thanks to our new mascots, the orange and yellow worker bees, the Weber State Wildcats can look forward to a new and renewed future on campus.

Updates will occur to this story as the semester progresses.