The walls and floors of the underground tunnel starting under Burkhardt Building were dirty and covered in dust. The beginning of the tunnel was bigger – tall enough to stand up straight and walk, even though the pathway was narrow and crowded with pipes.
Further into the tunnel, it narrowed and the ceiling with pipes hanging down got lower, until Jim Lowe, director of engineering, construction and operations, had to walk at a 90-degree angle in order to not hit his head.
To expand these tunnels and to address other concerns, the university has requested $11 million from the state. Lowe said those repairs would also include fixing the parts of existing tunnels that could be a safety concern and adding new tunnels.
These tunnels, built in the 1920s, have been used to store steam, water, high voltage and communication lines. As campus grew and more buildings were added, the tunnels were expanded to connect each building to the central steam plant.
“At that time, the Ball brothers came in and established these tunnels in 1918 in the quad area,” Lowe said. “So the tunnel structure was installed so we could hang steam lines and at that time, probably some water lines.”
Because the tunnels are so old, there are problems with the structure that need to be fixed. Lowe said while the problems aren’t a safety concern at the moment, they are thinking forward about it.
“I know it’s reached its point where it has to be cared for,” Lowe said. “We have to plan out and forecast these kinds of needs.”
Lowe said their thought was to relocate some of the older services that need repairs and take out some of them to free up space and make it easier to work on other systems.
“These tunnels are 6 feet wide, 7 feet tall,” Lowe said. “So when you walk through it, if you’re a person of any height, you’re ducking through it. So image if you put pipes in there, that are 20 inches in diameter and you have two of those. It really narrows down the walk path, which is a foot and a half to two feet at most.”
While most of the tunnels on campus are not meant for people to be in, nor have they ever been used for that, there are two tunnels that people do use.
One connects Elliot Hall to Wagoner Complex, and is used primarily to get the Indiana Academy students back and forth.
The other tunnel connects Emens Auditorium to Pruis Hall. Lowe said it is used predominantly for moving instruments to the elevator and lifting them up to the green room.
Chase Norman*, an Indiana Academy alumni, used to go down to the tunnels with his friends.
"A lot of students around the area know about it," Norman said. "We heard it through the grapevine, some of my friends had been told about it from their friends."
Norman said he and his friends entered the tunnels by North Quad, and ended up by the David Letterman Communication and Media Building.
"They span really far and they're connected to entrances to buildings all over campus," he said. "It's sort of a crapshoot whether the doors to the buildings from the tunnels are unlocked or not, but there were a number that were."
He went down two or three times, he said, because it was a fun way to distract themselves from work.
"It was just kind of a cool thing to do," Norman said. "We tried to find some maps of the tunnels, but we couldn't find it and we were trying to make our own maps of the tunnels, trying to find where each section led."
Norman said he had never been caught in the tunnels, but came close before.
"One time when we walked out of the door from the tunnels, we walked into a room full of people," he said. "It was a little nerve-wracking, but we sort of just kept walking and no one ever questioned it."
*Editor's Note: Chase Norman is a pseudonym to protect the identity of the person in this story.
Read More
Center for Peace offers academic opportunities
By Meghan Braddy and Grayson Joslin / 11 hours agoOver the years, the center has offered a peace studies minor, conflict resolution training and grant funding.
AP: New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction
By Staff Reports / 11 hours agoNew York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case, according to the Associated Press (AP).
AP: Hamas willing to enact ceasefire if an independent Palestinian state is established
By Staff Reports / 11 hours agoWednesday, April 24th, a top Hamas political official said the group is willing to agree to a truce of five years or more with Israel and that it would lay down its weapons and convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders, according to the Associated Press (AP).
