Kansas University athletes won’t be lifting weights in the Shaffer-Holland Strength Center much longer.

The 42,000-square-foot Anderson Family Strength and Conditioning Center is within its $8 million budget and on schedule to open in March.

“It’s going well,” said Algen Williams, a former KU football player who is an architect for HOK Sport+Venue+Event in Kansas City, Mo. “We’re right on schedule. They should have it enclosed by the first of next year. All the windows will be put it.”

Workers from Turner Construction finished the new facility’s roof early this month. The brick work is “80 percent done” and the installation of windows has begun.

The project has benefited from unseasonably warm, dry weather. Lawrence hasn’t had any precipitation during the past 40 days.

“It’s been a huge help,” Williams said of the weather. “It got cold there for a while, and that set them back a bit because when it gets cold you can’t do brick work. This last stretch of warm weather helped with the installation of brick.”

Turner Construction’s crew worked half a day on Christmas Eve and will be back on the job Thursday morning.

Carpet will be installed in February, and KU plans to move into the building adjacent to Anschutz Pavilion during the March 17-21 spring break.

KU, which has about 500 student-athletes, had about 450 when Shaffer-Holland Strength Center was opened in 1984. KU has eliminated men’s swimming and tennis since then, but the Jayhawks added women’s soccer and rowing.

Not only does Kansas have more athletes than it did in 1984, a higher percentage of individuals are lifting weights than 18 years ago. Shaffer-Holland is too small to meet the growing demand.

“It’s been nearly impossible,” said senior associate athletics director Richard Konzem. “It’s been a great building. At the time it was built, a lot of sports other than football, basketball and track weren’t lifting a lot. Even our golfers lift now. That was somewhat unheard of 20 years ago. Baseball wasn’t a sport you did much in weight lifting. Now weight lifting is a substantial part of it.”

Athletic department officials hope the new building will attract new athletes, in addition to make existing Jayhawks stronger and faster.

“We’re taking our recruits through there on recruiting weekends and showing them that,” football coach Mark Mangino said. “It’s awesome. The strength center here is really going to be one of a kind in college athletics.”