Thursday, January 31, 2008
Imagine an underground network of hidden crawl spaces and passageways leading from building to building, running beneath roads and sidewalks and branching out into a labyrinth that extends across campus.
No, this isn’t some imaginary war story filled with political intrigue and covert operations. At the University of Kansas, these tunnels are real, and curious students have found ways to explore them for years, much to the frustration of the administration.
The tunnels house large pipes that pump steam to the many buildings on campus, says George Cone, assistant director of central heating for Facilities Operations. The steam is used to heat buildings and water and also serves to humidify libraries. The condensation from the steam is collected in the pipes and sent back to the power plant to be reheated, so nothing goes to waste. The four miles’ worth of crawl spaces and passageways allow maintenance workers to repair any problems with the steam pipes without having to dig. Cone doesn’t think the tunnels are all that exciting, and he compares walking in them to walking in a basement, though this hasn’t stopped generations of curious students from taking a look for themselves.
Contributed photo
Kevin Hawley, 1978 graduate, says he remembers going into the steam tunnels at least 10 times throughout his senior year. Hawley, an aerospace engineering major at the time, spent a great deal of time in Learned Hall, where he and a group of his classmates first decided to explore the tunnels. After searching the basement of Learned, they came across a section of crawl space and decided to explore further. They soon discovered that the tunnels traveled to other buildings on campus, ending up in either the Military Science building or Green Hall depending on the direction they traveled.
Hawley says it was most exciting the first few times, when they weren’t sure where they were. “We went where we saw something and saw where we came out at,” Hawley says, adding that the tunnels were a little on the spooky side. They called their excursions into these underground passages “tunnel-ratting.” The group was almost caught at one point after finding its way into Green Hall late one night. None of the doors in the building could be opened without setting off an alarm, and Hawley says they had to resort to taking the tunnel back after a close encounter with a security guard.
Other students have also made their way down into the steam tunnels. Enoch Jennison, 2006 graduate, says he explored the tunnels three or four times before he graduated. Jennison says that the idea of tunnels underneath campus was intriguing and he had to check them out. He says that there wasn’t much down there other than old newspapers and a lot of water at some points.
Contributed photo
The steam tunnels have attracted other visitors as well. Cone says that a group of cats made the tunnels its home for a short period. After the cats were removed, Facilities Operations had to spray sections of the tunnels for fleas that had decided to stick around. Cone says he has also found mattresses down there, though he couldn’t imagine why someone would want to sleep in the tunnels.
Cone knows students are curious about the steam tunnels, but he says that students shouldn’t try to get into them. “I wish they wouldn’t, because it’s dangerous,” Cone says. Facilities Operations has locked up all the entrances to the steam tunnels to prevent people from getting in without authorization. Cone says that if someone is caught trying to get into the tunnels, the police will be notified.
Regardless, students will always be curious about the steam tunnels. Jennison says that the time he spent exploring them was a lot of fun. “I’d really like to go again,” he says.
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