OREM -- Construction on Utah Valley State College's much-anticipated $22 million technology building is expected to begin in about a month.
President Kerry D. Romesburg said state officials who oversee the development and construction of state buildings are sending out requests for bids on the project.A contractor should be selected in time to break ground the last week in April. The facility -- called the Information Sciences Building -- will be built on a gravel parking lot east of the school's library.
"If everything goes along as it possibly could, we could be in the building for spring semester 2002," Romesburg said. "That's the earliest. The real likelihood is for that fall."
Funding for the building comes from a $54.5 million bond approved by the Legislature this year. Higher education received the lion's share of the public-revenue package.
Southern Utah University, Salt Lake Community College and the University of Utah were also allocated money from the bond for construction projects on their respective campuses.
Romesburg was elated when lawmakers included UVSC's building request in the list of items to be funded by the bond. UVSC has tried to secure money for the building for four years.
Although money was given to the school in 1997 to prepare for construction, Gov. Mike Leavitt left the building off his funding recommendations this year.
But instead of waiting another year, Romesburg and his advisers launched a lobby effort -- and walked away with the most money of any of the state's nine schools of higher learning.
With 22 classrooms and 19 labs for electronics, robotics and computer science programs, the building will help ease overcrowding at UVSC. Some 2,000 students have been turned away for three consecutive terms because of space constraints at the 15,000-student school.
Romesburg said plans are being made to convert the school's warehouse into classrooms to accommodate students who need high-demand required sophomore and freshman classes.
"We're going to move the warehouse off campus," he said. "That'll be inconvenient for us but we can't afford to use on-campus space for storage."
Six extra classrooms in the warehouse can hold up to 1,600 students at day, he said.
"There are going to be some high ceilings in those classrooms," he said. "(But) we think we can be ready by fall with the warehouse classrooms."
In addition to the building, the school also will build a $7 million heating and cooling plant, which is needed to service the new addition. It will be funded by the bond as well.
The current plant is already taxed and cannot service any more buildings, Romesburg said.
"That inflates the project's price," he said. "We essentially needed a second heating plant."