The construction set-up that appeared on the Main Green five days ago may remain there indefinitely because of an unfound leak in the University's main heating system - a system at the "end of its (original) life cycle" and one that is undergoing repairs, said Stephen Maiorisi, acting vice president of Facilities Management.
"We were further along than last Wednesday but there is no way of knowing (whether) we are going to find (the leak) today, tomorrow or Wednesday," said James Coen, director of maintenance services. "We're looking at alternatives of what happens if we can't find the leak," he added.
The complicated structure of the high temperature water loop, the University's primary heating system, has made locating the source of the leak difficult. The facilities management team and temporary workers have located the crack in the external insulating pipe. However, the tear in the pipe carrying hot water remains a mystery because the pipe is nested within the external one, Maiorisi said.
"I think that we all feel that once we find the (internal) leak, it's a couple of days work to prep and bypass the problem and then we would do a temporary solution to the (grounds)," Maiorisi said. "We would put (the Main Green) back to how it looked, before Commencement."
After the leak was first observed, one hole was dug to access and repair the leak. Three additional holes have been dug to access the other likely locations of a tear in the heating loop, enlarging the fenced-off area on the Main Green, Coen said.
Until the source of the leak is identified and fixed, the University's summer-only oil burner system has been prematurely activated to provide uninterrupted hot water to all affected buildings - now only "half of the buildings on campus," Coen said.
Buildings north of Waterman Street have not been affected, but buildings to the south have lost heat during the past few days, Maiorisi said.
The University has stopped repair efforts and turned the main heating system back on each evening to keep residence halls at comfortable temperatures. The lowest temperature in any of the residence halls was 62 degrees in the Graduate Center, Coen said.
"We shut the system off and we have our control mechanism. We can see all the dorms, and we can see the temperature of the rooms and we make judgments of when to put the heat back on line," Coen said.
Once the system is turned on, temperatures quickly rise to levels unsafe for workers to continue their search for the leak, according to Coen.
Though the University has been balancing heating its buildings with "trying to get every minute they can in the hole," the blizzard over the weekend halted all work, said Thomas Forsberg, associate director of housing and residential life.
The snowstorm was "creat-ing an unsafe situation for the student population. The visibility was down and we were worried for students' safety," Coen said. "Initially I thought a few students were crossing the work site. Although they are curious, they haven't come past the barricades," he said.
Few students have complained to the University about the lower temperatures in the residence halls, Forsberg said.
"In general, with the temperature being colder than (normal) ... you would expect to see more calls," said Jacqueline Newcomb, assistant director for operations. "Overall our records show that we have low levels of call-ins for heat."
The high temperature water system has had leaks in the past, but not of this magnitude. Before the leak appeared, the University had already begun to repair the 45-year-old system, Maiorisi said.
