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The Rice Thresher
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by Rachel Krause Thresher staff
The construction of a utility tunnel between Hanszen and Wiess Colleges will continue to block the most direct path from the residential quad to Autry Court for at least a few more months, Facilities and Engineering Project Manager David Rodd said. At the end of January 2000, Rodd (Lovett '78) said the tunnel was expected to take three more months to complete. However, delays in construction have pushed the date back to a few months from now, even though work on the tunnel was consistent throughout the summer, Rodd said. About half of the tunnel is complete and waterproofed, Rodd said. Workers will fill the hole around the tunnel with dirt and cover the area with sod in about a week. When this happens, the construction fence will come down and will be replaced by caution tape around the area. The tape will stay up four to six weeks while the sod takes root. The most recent delay is due to the rerouting of a sanitary sewer line, whose new path turned out to conflict with buried chilled water pipes. This problem, discovered about three weeks ago, requires that engineers and architects redesign the sewer pipe's move. This particular construction project has seen several other delays. In order to preserve trees, the hole had to be as narrow as possible. Workers had to shore up the sides of the tunnel with wood planks and metal beams to comply with federal safety regulations, and following these procedures without harming trees in the area required extra time and money. Once digging began, workers found old, active utility lines - storm drainage lines, a sanitary sewage line and a water line - and some unused pipes. "It's kind of like an archeological dig," Rodd said. "We are finding things we didn't know were there." He said since the area around Hanszen and Wiess is in the oldest part of campus, the utilities have likely been in place since Rice's earliest days. "When you come across things like this, it takes extra time," Rodd said. "We have to investigate and engineers have to decide on the best solution. During this time the contractors have to just stop and wait for a decision," he said. Some students are patient about the tunnel construction. "It's an eyesore and an inconvenience, but it's really not that bad," Wiess freshman Phil Burge said. "The construction isn't too noisy. I'll be glad when it's gone, though." Completion of the second half of the tunnel will take a few more months. The utility tunnel will eventually connect the common kitchen/servery for Hanszen and Wiess to an existing tunnel that runs down the center of the residential quad. Utility tunnels (commonly called "steam tunnels") are buried concrete structures that carry pipes for chilled water and steam, used for climate control, as well as electric, telephone and network wires. The delays in the construction of the tunnel will not affect the construction of the servery, which is expected to be complete in March 2001.
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