KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) — Come gameday in Kalamazoo, there will be a sea of brown and gold flooding around Waldo Stadium, but a lot of orange is also being washed out.

Orange cones and barrels on Stadium Drive bloomed nonstop since this spring. After crews tore up and repaved the major thoroughfare, the city of Kalamazoo said the bulk of the work is complete as of this week, just in time for the Broncos’ home opener against Pitt on Saturday.

“To see all the lanes opened up and no orange cones — they were off to the side, but not blocking lanes of traffic — it was a little refreshing, for sure,” said Elaine Russell, WMU’s senior associate athletic director for external operations.

The city of Kalamazoo’s traffic engineer said there is still some work to be done, but it’s a “punch list” of cleanup work ranging from concrete and median work to paint and installing traffic cameras at key Stadium Drive intersections at Michigan Avenue, Howard Street and Oliver Street. Those will be done by the end of this year and only cause intermittent lane closures.

There is also a notable change to parking. Lot 105 off of Oliver Street is now a paid parking lot after student tailgating moved from there to Lots 16 and 94.

“They want to be more centrally located into campus, so students who may be living in some of the residence halls that don’t have cars could walk to tailgating,” Russell explained. “That was kind of a far walk from those residence halls all the way to Lot 105.”

Tailgate lots will open at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. Fans planning to park near Lawson Ice Arena will be offered a shuttle making rounds from there to Lot 13, where Waldo Stadium is within better walking distance.

WMU is also debuting Buster’s Block Party at Lot 13, in front of the university’s student recreation center. It will feature interactive games and inflatables for the kids, along with a 5:30 p.m. concert headlined by country music artist Chase Bryant.