Steam tunnels to be placed underground on east campus is part of a $1,470,000 project to install them in all major buildings on NIU’s campus by August 10.

Conrad Miller, administrator and support service project manager to the Physical Plant, said that steam tunnels are being put on the west side of Gilbert Hall and the east side of Wirtz Hall. He said $400,000 of the project’s total cost will go toward fixing the Gilbert and Wirtz Hall area.

He said the new steam lines in the tunnels will benefit Gilbert, the Art Building, Music Building and Wirtz. The installation of the tunnels, which begins today, will create one-way traffic on Lucinda Avenue and will cause traffic problems on Gilbert Drive.

Miller said NIU is trying to eliminate “direct burial” of steam lines. He said steam lines that are direct burial means that the pipe is placed in the ground and covered with dirt.

e said when the pipes get old they start to leak and steam comes up from the ground but it is difficult to locate the leak.

“For the last two years we have been installing steam tunnels on west campus. We are now continuing where we left off on the east end of campus,” Miller said.

“Having the steam lines enclosed in concrete could be serviced a lot quicker,” Miller said. The steam tunnel is eight feet high so someone could walk inside the tunnel and make repairs easily.

The tunnels resemble big concrete pipes that can be placed in the area or concrete can be poured into place.

Over the summer workers will be connecting the steam lines (or pipes) to a vault on the north side of Lucinda that will go around Gilbert, he said. With a vault, workers can cut off the steam running through the pipes and remove and put on old pipes.

Miller said that on May 30 through June 1 there is going to be a campus-wide shutdown of all steam so that some repairs can be done on the pipes.

“We hope we can make the necessary steam changes at this time,” Miller said. If the lines cannot be repaired during that time, there are two backup days on July 5 and 6. The project should be completed by August 10 if weather permits, Miller said.

John Harrod, Physical Plant director, said it is an ongoing process, and he hopes that all the steam tunnels will be done in five years. He said that the addition of these steam tunnels will affect some of the landscaping of the campus.

The engineering and architectual firm of Henneman, Raufeisen and Associates from the Champaign, Illinois area designed the location of the steam tunnels in relation to the campus.