By Sarah Carlson, Arts Editor

Construction on a new pecan grove along Judge Ely Boulevard, across from the main entrance of the university, began during the winter break, and the trees will be planted in the fall, said Kevin Watson, associate vice president for administrative services, in an e-mail.

“This will improve the look and feel of campus as you drive up,” Watson said. “Long term, we want to improve the campus at the main entrance.”

Plans to improve the campus landscape have been in development for some time, he said, and potentially 60,000 to 65,000 cubic yards of soil will be brought in from the Wal-Mart Supercenter construction site at the intersection of Highway 351 and Interstate 20 to build a berm enclosure, or a mound of earth, on the east side of Judge Ely.

Bob Nevill, director of Physical Resources, said in an e-mail that the soil, 13,000 cubic yards of which is already at the grove site, is surplus material from the Wal-Mart site and comes at no cost to the university. He said irrigation and turf grasses will be placed in the area during the spring and summer before the trees will be planted in the late fall during ACU’s centennial.

“The orchard is not a direct part of the Centennial Celebration,” Nevill said, “but we hope that it can be a significant feature of the celebration.”

Watson also said that construction on the new A.B. Barret residence hall on Campus Court is going well, and the middle section of concrete was poured Wednesday.

The hall is still scheduled to be finished Aug. 1, which means the construction crew will work weekends and long hours, he said, adding that it wouldn’t hurt if the weather helped out.

“With the weather turning colder this week and next, it could delay us some,” Watson said. “We will have to make that call day-by-day.”

Workers have to connect the new hall with the central plant, piping hot and cold water into the building to provide air conditioning and heating. The area in front of the Brown Library was chosen as the location to tie the hall to the central plant circulation system, Watson said.

Central plant crew workers began working at the beginning of winter break to dig up Campus Court before classes began, finishing Jan. 8. They now are trenching through the grass along Library Court toward the street, Watson said.

Nevill said traffic on Campus Court will not be disrupted again until late March or early April, and the project will be finished no later than early July, when the area around the new hall is repaved and landscaped.